miniseed.com

Moved to WordPress

Wed, 09 Jul 2008, 06:33:41 PST

With Odelia, it will be increasingly difficult to develop my site, so I've decided to move to WordPress. If you're seeing this page, that means you're still pointing the old site via RSS or a link. Please go to http://www.miniseed.com and update with the new RSS feed link!

Fuzzy Due For Annual Exam?

Sun, 06 Jul 2008, 15:46:32 PST

The veternarian who single-handedly squeezed Fuzzy to death decided to milk more money out of us by sending us a reminder that Fuzzy is due for a "wellness exam" a year after he passed away. Apparently they didn't realize Fuzzy didn't make it through his last visit. This is the Bellevue Center of Veterinary Medicine, which I would recommend that you stay away at all costs unless you're looking for a Euthanizing Institution.

Crime Scene At My House

Sun, 29 Jun 2008, 18:52:20 PST

WARNING: The following story contains graphic images and can be upsetting. Parental discretion is advised.

When we came home today after running some errands, we unloaded Lia along with the groceries. Next to the garage door, some carpenter ants were crawling. "They're back?!" I thought to myself. I followed the carpenter ant out of the garage when, to my horror, I saw four corpses sitting in my driveway. These were no ordinary corpses--they were babies! What happened? Did some cruel parent threw their babies out of the window, or did these babies get so hot they lept to their death in the 92 degree heat of the day? Forensic evidence were lacking, as the parents were nowhere to be found and it was difficult contacting any family members.

Here was an picture taken of the crime scene:

Currently the case is still open, and we hope someday to unravel this mystery.

Hungry or Not Hungry?

Tue, 24 Jun 2008, 03:04:21 PST

Karen asked Lia if she's hungry, and this was her response...

Illegal to coast in fast lane even at speed limit

Mon, 23 Jun 2008, 20:11:53 PST

Apparently it is illegal to be driving in the fast lane at speed limit if you're not passing in Washington, and the troopers are now giving out tickets for this.

http://www.komonews.com/news/20656789.html

What prompted for recent ticketing is to reduce road rage, and slow drivers have caused accidents recently. Might want to be careful the next time you're driving in the fast lane at 60 with 10 cars tailgating behind ya. You might be getting a ticket for being a slow poke!

Goodbye, old laptop. Hello, desktop?!

Sat, 21 Jun 2008, 13:01:03 PST

For a while, I enjoyed the company of my laptop, the Sony S360. It was a great laptop with a slim profile, light weight, great 13.3 screen, and powerful ATI Radeon 9700 graphics card. Unfortunately one day it took a head-dive down the stairs and was never the same. Occasionally it would throw a fit and completely freeze up. Well, recently it has been throwing these tantrums more frequently, as any slight movement to the laptop would render it useless.

However, as I looked into a placement laptop, I'm looking for:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz+
LED 13.3" screen
Lightweight, around 4 lbs or less
HDMI or DVI port
Bluetooth
802.11n
Fingerprint scanner, fun to have

In the end, I found two laptops that fit my bill, the Dell XPS M1330 and Sony SZ750. I looked at the M1330, which is cheaper, and even though it is LED, seems to have poor viewing angle. There have also been many complaints about build quality. The Sony, on the other hand, has dual graphics card switch uses one to save power but the other one for serious gaming, but it does not have a built-in HDMI port. It does have a docking station with a DVI port, so I was almost about to pull the trigger on it when it became discontinued! What?!

Apparently the new Intel processor and chipset, Montevina, is coming out this summer, and everyone's saying to wait for it. So what do I do in the mean time? Well, the laptop is pretty useless at the current moment, so I decided to do a little handiwork...

And transform it into a "desktop"... without the expandability and possibly dangerous to the touch, but this will have to do until the new laptops come out.

And yes, I did write this blog on that thing.

Odelia at 2 months!

Sat, 07 Jun 2008, 19:05:46 PST

Okay, so Odelia was two months a few days ago, but today was Odelia's 2 month checkup! The good news is that she has been doing very well up to this point, but the bad news is that she's due for her vaccinations--not one, not two, but four shots!

Here's how Odelia took the whole thing...

At least it wasn't as bad as the Heel Poke!

Germs, germs, and more germs!

Tue, 27 May 2008, 13:39:01 PST

With Odelia in her first two months of life, her immune system is still weak. Not long ago, many of our small group got struck by a stomach virus, so there's reason to be cautious about where I bring Odelia and what she gets exposed to, at least until she reaches her second month, when she'll be getting at least 4 immunization shots. I avoid bringing Odelia to social function where lots of people carrying germs are roaming about. I wash my hands almost all the time. I avoid public bathroom handles, where people who don't wash their hands after doing their thing deposit their germs.

I thought I was cautious, but today I read this article on MSNBC about places that you don't think of where you can get germs. In summary:

1. Vacuum Cleaners - 50 percent of the vacuum brushes they tested contained fecal bacteria, including 13 percent with E. coli, and all were packing mold.

Hmm, time to give my iRobot a cleaning!

2. Your weight-lifting gloves - A 2004 Japanese study found that staph bacteria bind strongly to polyester, which is used in many gloves.

Haven't lifted weights other than Odelia for a while, so I'm ok here.

3. The grocery cart - The handles of almost two-thirds of shopping carts tested in a 2007 University of Arizona study were contaminated with fecal bacteria. The carts had even more of these bacteria than the average public bathroom has.

I definitely didn't think about this one, as we just took Odelia to Fred Meyer, with me holding Odelia in one hand and the shopping cart in the other.

4. Gym equipment - A 2006 study in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine found rhinoviruses (instigators of the common cold) on 63 percent of the gym equipment at the fitness centers they tested.

I get all my workout through holding and calming Odelia, so I'm ok here.

5. The restaurant menu - recent study in the Journal of Medical Virology reports that cold and flu viruses can survive for 18 hours on hard surfaces.

Haven't been to a restaurant for a while either, so we're okay for now. Definitely something to watch out for when Karen and I have a life again.

6. The flight attendant - Flight attendants are exposed to dozens of sniffling and coughing passengers and the surfaces they touch.

Don't think Karen and I will be flying for a while.

7. Your bed - More than 84 percent of beds in U.S. homes host dust mites. These microscopic critters live in your sheets and feed on your dead skin, and their fecal matter and corpses contribute to asthma and allergies.

This explains why I never make the bed--because of fear of allergies... Yeah... That's it. Time to make that case with Karen.

8. The lemon wedge in your drink - In a 2007 study from the Journal of Environmental Health, nearly 70 percent of the lemon wedges smashed onto restaurant glasses contained disease-causing microbes, including E. coli and other fecal bacteria.

No trips to restaurants, no worries.

9. Your contact-lens case - In a 2007 Chinese study, 34 percent of contact-lens cases tested were found to be crawling with germs like Serratia and Staphylococcus aureus. These microorganisms can cause keratitis, an inflammatory eye disease that can damage the cornea and lead to blindness.

Time to chuck that lens case I've been using since 1995...

10. Your shower curtain - The soap scum hanging out on your curtain is more than just unsightly. A study in Applied and Environmental Microbiology found that vinyl shower curtains are microbe meccas, breeding potential pathogens, such as infection-causing Sphingomonas and Methylobacterium. Plus, the force of the shower spray will make germs take flight.

And I thought that making the shower glass window look fogged just changes style of the window. TIme to bust out Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser.

Looks like I will need to make a few adjustments in my life... just so that little Lia can stay safe and sound!

Baby Donts

Sun, 25 May 2008, 23:55:08 PST

With me back to work and my parents in town last week, things have been increasingly hectic. Hopefully I can find some time here and there to post some interesting things.

Now, take a look at this picture and see if you can detect anything wrong with what we're doing with the baby...

Can you find them all? A point per answer goes to whoever gets that answer first! I will not be posting any followup, so if no one answers, then you will all be kept hanging! There are at least four "taboos" according to modern science and the SIDS foundation.

How To Calm A Baby Series Part V: Horsey

Tue, 13 May 2008, 01:10:20 PST

Here's perhaps the best baby calming strategy I have to date!

Backup Time Machine

Sat, 10 May 2008, 00:09:41 PST

A while back I shared about my backup solution, where I use a DLink DNS-323 to make backups from one drive to another, once per night. This prevents me from accidentally deleting a file and loosing it forever. Unfortunately, the safety net is only for one day, because if you need to recover it the next day, the data from the day before is overwritten and the data is gone forever.

However, Mac has the concept of Time Machine, where you can go back to any point in time and recover any of the old versions of files that you've ever had. It's an interesting concept, but making a full copy everyday will run out of storage after 2-3 backups! Fortunately, I have learned that using rsync, which is how I've been backing up from one drive to another, you can actually make a full backup every day, without wasting space for files that haven't changed.

So with a full backup everyday, I don't have to worry about overwriting a file and not being able to recover it, because I can go to any version of any file on any day. Now that's a backup solution!

Infant Dedication on Sunday

Thu, 08 May 2008, 21:41:00 PST

Odelia will have her dedication to God this Sunday!

May she become a God-fearing woman, Right now all she can do is cry unto the Lord...

First Letter!

Thu, 08 May 2008, 00:07:08 PST

Odelia has received her first snail mail!

It's definitely strange to see...

Unfortunately it was not a very personal letter, but hey, she's in the system!

Back to Work

Wed, 07 May 2008, 01:30:41 PST

After a nice 4.5 weeks on vacation bonding with Odelia and doing chores, I returned to work today. I'm sure Karen will be missing the pancakes that I've been making her for breakfast...

Does Odelia Look Like James Or Karen?

Mon, 05 May 2008, 20:13:57 PST

Here's the question, who does Odelia look like?

Here's Picture A

Here's Picture B

Here's a reminder of what Odelia looks like.

So take your vote. A or B? And no, I will not reveal which is which.

Happiest Baby On The Block

Mon, 05 May 2008, 01:41:25 PST

Karen and I watched the Happiest Baby On The Block last week.

In the DVD, Dr. Karp mentions that babies may have come a trimester early and hence cannot support its own head and need constant attention. Then he goes on to connect his own exercises with an experience of the baby while in the womb.

Dr. Karp starts the demonstration by manages to wrap the baby up really tightly like a cocoon, or a straight-jacket. It didn't seem to have much effect because the baby cried much harder than before. Then he turns the baby on its side position, hisses in his ears so loudly to the baby is stunned, similar to the effect of a tazer, then proceed to shake the baby's head like washing a bowl of rice. With the shaking, the baby is so distraunt with the movements that the baby cannot actively cry, and eventually tires and gives up Lastly, he introduces a break-through product and technique, called "using the pacifier".

At the end of the day, some parents may wish to treat their baby's head like a bowl of rice, but I prefer to use the loving methods, such as Crouching Tiger or the Waltz method. That way I can bond with my daughter, and get a workout in the process.

Odelia's One Month Celebration!

Sun, 04 May 2008, 02:09:17 PST

Odelia's surviving one month with Karen and I definitely deserved some celebration! Unfortunately Karen and I were busy gabbing with guests and didn't have much time to take pictures, but here are a few moments from the video clips we did get.

During the whole time, Odelia was sleeping. Notice her cute, little sleeping pose with her hands on the side of her face.

Then there was the food...

And more food, with Emily and Grandma chatting...

And people enjoying the food, with Karen taking some photos in the background...

Carol first requested the privilege of holding Odelia. Unfortunately the hood not staying on the head prompted a premature ending to the holding session...

Here's a demonstration of what it takes to request that holding privilege...

A few of our neighbors swung by...

As did Karen's friends Niels and Erin...

Johnny saying Hi to Odelia...

Later Jun built up enough courage to attempt holding Odelia. Obviously my heart was pounding at the same rate the baby's heart was beating in the womb, around 150.

And Odelia meeting Sweetpea for the first time...

Paul and Danny came later...

At this point, Odelia started getting squirmy...

And that was the One Month Celebration.

Odelia would like to thank everyone who came and wish to see you all again soon!

How To Calm A Baby Series Part IV: Robot

Fri, 02 May 2008, 20:09:42 PST

So far we've covered three different ways to calm your baby, the Waltz, the Curl, and the Squat. They also happen to be three ways you can keep yourself in shape while taking care of a baby, as the three methods amount to aerobics, upper body workout, and lower body workout. However, calming a baby doesn't have to always be such hard work and can be fun. Here's the robot method of calming a baby...

Baby Wipes

Fri, 02 May 2008, 01:41:55 PST

Initially, we had gotten a small pack of Pampers Baby Wipes (image is a bigger version of what we got)...

And the wipes were so soft and moist I loved them. However, being money conscience, we decided to get a box of Huggies wipe from Costco with coupon, which was very cheap. After all, how different could they be?

Apparently a lot. The Huggies wipes were gritty and harsh, and when I utilitized them on Odelia's bums, I cannot help but feel like I doing some sanding instead of wiping. Then I talked to Chris and he suggested that Costco wipes were also soft, so we tried some.

They were definitely softer and better than Huggies, but we took out some left-over Pampers from our travel packed and did a comparison. It was clear that the Kirkland brand was not as moist, and because of that, I noticed it wasn't picking up as much of the dried deli mustard as it should.

So at the end of the day, we will also be sticking with Pampers, who just keep making great products. If the Costco wipes were Tissue papers, then Huggies wipes would be paper towels, and the Pampers wipes would be silk.

Verdict

Huggies: Average
Costco: Good
Pampers: Great <== Editor's Choice

How To Calm A Baby Series Part III: Crouching Tiger

Wed, 30 Apr 2008, 20:23:40 PST

So far I've shown two methods for calming a baby, the Waltz and the Curl. Now I will show you another way: the Crouching Tiger, or the Squat method.

So Long, Phone Jack!

Tue, 29 Apr 2008, 22:58:21 PST

Now with the new Network Storage device I purchased, I want a fast way of accessing my pictures and videos. Our typical wireless networks run at 54 Mbps, which is sluggish when it comes to browsing network data. There are times when I would wait my life away for that RAW picture to load, and it certainly can be frustrating.

Enter the gigabit network. The gigabet ethernet runs at 1000 Mbps, which is faster than the computer itself, but the only way I can connect the computers together is to run a forest of ethernet wires around the house, reminiscent of the college days when wireless was not pervasive and hubs were everwhere.

But then a light bulb turned on. I recall that my phone wiring was done using CAT5 cables, so why not rewire it for ethernet? With the cordless and cell phones, who needs phone jacks all over the house anyway? So I ran to the nearest Lowe's and bought some modular jacks, in case I want to change the ports in the future. I unscrewed all the phone jacks and realized that there's only a single CAT5 cable that runs throughout the house, which means I cannot have a central switch and there will need to be a switch for every room that needs gigabit access. For now, I just have one other room I need connection for, so I'm fine for now. After mapping out where the cable went, I began replacing the wall plates...

So now most of my plates are this simple, just a plain ol' Ethernet jack for the gigabit network. The only caveat is that the house is wired with CAT5, but to access gigabit speeds, I need CAT 5e or CAT6 cables. Fortunately, they're more specs than anything else, so at short distances, I can still access just about as fast as the computers can go. Now I can connect our laptops via gigabit ethernet when accessing the Network Access Storage device, and transfer at as fast as the hard drives/computers would go without running a ethernet cable along the hallways!

Can Odelia Say Hi?

Mon, 28 Apr 2008, 13:39:14 PST

Now we all know that Odelia is able to roll over at 5 days when typical babies roll over at 3 months. Is it possible Odelia is way above the curve at 3 weeks when it comes to verbal skills?

I'll let you be the judge of that one. :)

More Odelia Pictures

Sun, 27 Apr 2008, 12:45:37 PST

Hey look, I'm Tigger! Boing, Boing!

Oh wait, maybe superheroes are cooler. Here comes Supergirl!

Kryptonite?! Ok, I surrender!

A salute for all those men and women in the military...

Daddy and mommy said I need to start learning to pray...

And start learning self-defense. How about some Tai-Bo? Don't mess with me!

Okay, gotta go. See you next time!

The Treasure Hunt... For Rice

Sat, 26 Apr 2008, 22:15:45 PST

On Thursday we received phone calls from our moms urging us to blitz to the nearest Costco to stock up on rice because of the Thai fiasco, and it happened at the worst time as I had just dropped our last two cups of rice into the rice cooker. Unfortunately due to some special circumstances, I was impeded from my Costco travel plans until Friday, and when I arrived, the rice section had vanished! No more rice! What happened?! By this time, a bead of hot swet began rolling down my forehead. Could this be it? Is this the end of our Chinese meals? Do we need to now opt for Spaghetti, Clam Chowder, PB&J Sandwich, and Spam?

For dinner, I had to drop by Uwajimaya to get some fish heads (Karen's favorites), and lo and behold, they had rice! Well, $19 for 20 lb Thai Jasmine is definitely pricy, but if spending that $19 will bring back the savory Drunken Chicken and Pork Blood with Intestines, then so be it. So I dropped one into my cart, along with the fish heads, and worked my way to the checkout stand. The person in front of me saw my bag of rice and decided to get some as well, but his bag was $50 for 50 lbs. But then his wife, whose innate Asian nature caused her to snoop around behind the piles, discovered a what should be out-of-stock bag of Shirakiku which was $23 for 40 lb! Now why didn't I think of checking between and behind the rice bags? I've been witnessing these type of maneuvers with my folks, so it should have been second nature to me. Have I been so Americanized that when I buy milk, I just pick the first one I see that expires the next day without looking at the date, instead of the last one in the back of the fridge that expires 2 weeks from now?

After I checked out, I decided to do a little treasure hunt of my own, and to my bewilderment, another Shirakiku was found! I immediately loaded it in my cart, as the envious bystanders looked on, and returned to the checkout stand. This was a Japanese brand, Calrose, and ... no washing required?! Okay that last part sounds a little fishy, but otherwise this looks legit. Definitely not made in China.

So the morale of the story is, when the item you wanted is sold out, don't just hang your head low and walk away. Dig behind the stack or piles with fervor! Better yet, comb through the entire store! You never know if you might find that "last" hidden treasure hiding somewhere.

How To Calm A Baby Series Part II: The Curl

Fri, 25 Apr 2008, 21:41:48 PST

Previously, I demonstrated the Waltz method of calming a baby. While the method may be sweet and is a great bonding time with the baby, it's not always practical. For example, it is difficult to be waltzing your baby around your bedroom at 3am in the morning when your eyes are blood-shot and arms are shaking from the lack of sleep, putting both the furniture and the baby in jeopardy. Fortunately, I have discovered another way of calming Odelia, and the method is: The Curl. In this demonstration, I only needed one set, but you may need to adjust the number of reps and number of sets.

Another method that works like a charm!

Home Media Storage

Wed, 23 Apr 2008, 22:16:46 PST

Have you ever lost a file you really wanted to keep? With so many Odelia pictures and videos, I needed some storage and backup solution that I can feel safe about. Many people store their pictures on just one computer, but if that hard drive crashes, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So I started with the 1TB MyBook Studio Edition. Initially everything worked fine, but unfortunately when used with the MacBook Pro, MyBook would fall asleep and never wake up, freezing up both itself and the MacBook. One time when this happened, I had no choice but to pull the Firewire connection, and the Pictures folder disappeared! Yikes! Good thing I had the original copy on another computer. It's going back.

Next I tried a Thermallake external hard drive enclosure. The design was immediately alarming because it lacked a fan or ventilation openings, which can cause the drive to fail sooner. While this enclosure worked with the PC, it actually corrupted some files I touched when accessed from the Mac!

Finally, I decided to fork out a little more money and got a DLink DNS-323 Dual-Bay Network Access Storage and stacked them with two Seagate 1TB hard drives. It comes with a Gigabit connection, so I can access the files quickly or have it always available over wireless. Every night it backs up the primary drive onto the secondary drive automatically and incrementally. It saves a whole lot of hassle and gives me a peace of mind. Now I have 1 TB of backed up storage, a perfect solution! In addition, the DNS-323 is essentially a small linux machine that uses 20% of the power of a traditional computer, it provides the added bonus of being a iTunes server and a print server (USB port). After reading a dedicated web site on how to add plugins and hacks, I've learned you can add telnet, bittorrent, ftp server, appletalk, scheduled downloads, and more. Performance is also great.

So now I have a place I can store all the precious Odelia pictures and videos, all the Europe photos, and all the other goofy stuff I've saved in the past. And best of all, I have a peace of mind that if Murphy's Law strikes one of the hard drives, my data is still intact. Looks like this unit is a winner, but only time will tell.

Update: I did some tests and noticed that this device is runs at 25 watts while active and 8 watts in "standby" mode. Definitely much better than the typical desktop.

Odelia Meets Tigger

Tue, 22 Apr 2008, 21:57:29 PST

Wonder what was Odelia's first reaction when she met Tigger for the first time?

Pampers vs. Huggies Diapers

Mon, 21 Apr 2008, 22:15:53 PST

When you have a child, the number of diaper choices can be overwhelming. I recall standing in Target drowned in the sea of diaper racks. Pampers or Huggies? Swaddlers or Baby Dry? Gentle Care or Snug N Dry? Generic brand? We tried consulting a few friends about this, and Olivia recommended Pampers Swaddlers after trying a few others and not liking them as much. Christine, who did tons of research on the internet, got the typical internet result of comment overload where one swears by Pampers, another swears by Huggies. One person would find the generic brands just as good but cheaper, but others warn about sticking with real brands or be prepared to swim in a lake of crap. In the end, we decided to enlighten the world with yet another unscientific experiment by purchasing smaller packs of Huggies and Pampers diapers. The three types that we ended up testing were Pampers Swaddlers, Huggies Gentle Care, and Huggies Snug N Dry.

Pampers Swaddlers (Left), Huggies Gentle Care (Middle), Huggies Snug N Dry (Right)

Because Odelia was almost 8 lbs when she was born, we did not get a chance to use anything but the Pampers Swaddlers for the newborn size. It's interesting that the Hospital Edition contains a yellow line that turns green when fused with pee, indicating a #1 has occured. When we left the hospital, we continued using the Home Edition of the Pampers Swaddlers that Justine bought us, which is the same except the pee line. These diapers were good, fitting snugly and held the thick fudge that came preinstalled in newborns. Once the fudge was gone, it held the watery deli mustard equally well.

Pampers Swaddlers, Size 1

When we ran out of newborn size, we decided to start using Size 1 as Odelia is already at the lower end of the weight spectrum for size 1s. The Size 1 Swaddlers seem thinner than the Newborn, but it may be due to the surface size of the diaper. The extra net-like inner lining was nice, and it was the softest of the three diapers we tried. We did experience one accident, but I attribute that to human error.

Huggies Gentle Care, Size 1

When we ran out of Size 1 Swaddlers, so we immediately started on Size 1 Huggies Gentle Care. These diapers seem slightly smaller but more padded, and the design with Pooh and Friends is more lovely than the Sesame Street of the Swaddlers, which wins browny points with Karen. However, within 24 hours, we experienced a pee leakage that escaped the diapers, through the new clothes I had just painstakingly picked out for her, and onto the blanket of our poor bed. An examination after installing another new diaper indicated a breach, an opening around the legs, on the new diaper. This may be because the Huggies material was harder, so it was easier to bend an opening around the legs, because we never had this problem with the Pampers Swaddlers.

Huggies Snug N' Dry, Size 1

At this point we also opened some Huggies Snug N Dry, and immediately noticed the thinner padding, rougher material, and poorer construction. If the Swaddlers were made in Japan, the Gentle Care would be made in Taiwan and Snug N Dry would be made in China. The edges were stuck to the liners and the whole thing felt like a piece of wrinkled napkin with a toilet paper lining. It seemed to fit more snugly, but after a crap fest, there still seemed to be smearing of sewage around the edges which was too close for comfort.

At the end of the day, we will be sticking with what works and can be trusted, which is Pampers Swaddlers. It is clearly the Editor's Choice.

How To Calm A Baby: Waltz

Sun, 20 Apr 2008, 21:01:37 PST

Spending time with Odelia has been very satisfying, as she is cute, energetic and sweet. On the other hand, spending time with Odelia can also be very trying, as the incessant cries can test the limits of human patience.

With Odelia, however, I've found one sure-fire way of calming her down, and it does not involve booze. Here's my secret...

Works like a charm!

Forty Days of Purpose Infomercial

Sat, 19 Apr 2008, 23:58:31 PST

I had some extra time between feedings, dug into my media vault and found this old infomercial that I thought was interesting...

Two Week Metamorphosis

Fri, 18 Apr 2008, 22:43:26 PST

Two weeks. It seemed like Odelia was a little chunkier when she first came out...

She started at 7 lb 15 oz, then dropped to 7 lb 6 oz in about 5 days, and has steadily been gaining weight for a week now. It appears that her steady diet of milk has netted 1 oz a day, as our last weight check on Wednesday put her at 8 lb 5 oz. The pediatrician mentioned that once she reaches her weight, we should let her sleep as much as she wants, but unfortunately that did not provide relief during the wee hours as it did not change our schedule a bit.

She now seems be a little less chunky and more alert.

First it bewildered us that Karen and I would produce such an overweight baby, but a little phone call to my folks revealed that I was over 9 lbs, hence explaining why Odelia was pigging out in Karen's belly. It appears it was from my side of the family.

Nevertheless, she's already looking different at 2 weeks. She's growing up on us already! Pretty soon I'll be able to teach her how to pick beautiful flowers from the field! We sure got a lot of yellow ones for her...

Organic Garden

Thu, 17 Apr 2008, 22:42:07 PST

Karen's parents have been dropping by a couple times a week. If you know them, you'd know they pride themselves in the organic garden in their backyard, with varieties such as Spinach, Tomatoes, Baby Bok Choy, Chinese Broccoli, Leek, Pumpkins, etc. Apparently they have clandestinely been transforming our yard, as we saw the fruit (or vegetable, in this case) of their labor...

It has only been a few days, but some organic vegetables are already starting to grow! No idea what they are though. To fathom its significance, lets visit the part of our garden with the old variety we used to grow...

This type of produce tastes bitter, so there is reason to like the new variety better. Maybe if Karen's parents drop by a few more times, we can forego grocery shopping for vegetables ever again!

Five Circles of Blood

Wed, 16 Apr 2008, 23:05:51 PST

Some may call PKU a test for a generic disorder, but I call PKU a punishment designed to punish kids for being born, once at birth, and once at 7-14 days. We arrived at the hospital and the operative (aka nurse) initiated her by installing on a warming device on her foot...

The little sweet Odelia was sleeping happily, oblivious to her inevitable fate of being subjected to the rituals of the Five Circles of Blood.

Yes, it made me cringe as I saw it unfold before my eyes. Oh the cruelties of reality, a necessary evil. Welcome to this world, Odelia.

Loose Hand In Swaddle

Tue, 15 Apr 2008, 23:02:04 PST

This is what happens when the hand slips out of the swaddle.

More Odelia

Sun, 13 Apr 2008, 01:19:27 PST

When a couple have a baby, they give all their time and attention to the baby. I don't blame them, for who can resist a smile like this?

I knew Odelia would be a football fan, even in her dreams. She will be a Chargers fan just like her daddy. Touchdown!

Okay, fine, the Seahawks can be her #2 team.

Here's a picture of Odelia sleeping with her little bear...

Looks like Odelia is starting to fall off her bed...

Sometimes she checks you out, thinking "I'm watching you!"

And sometimes I wonder if she's just pretending to be oblivious just to continue getting the royalty treatment from Karen and me!

That's all for now. More to come!

Wardrobe Malfunction

Fri, 11 Apr 2008, 23:44:56 PST

Typically Odelia sleeps on a little memory-foamed sleeper between Karen and I. Last night, during a snacking session in the wee hours of the morning, her wardrobe malfunctioned, causing fudge, or more accurately, deli mustard, to be spread across our clean, soft sheet. If it wasn't for the extra matress padding fending off the foul ingredient, the art would have been permanently fixated on our BeautyRest bed. To look on the bright side, I've now learned to be more diligent during diaper changes.

(Due to their graphic nature, the images have been omitted from this post.)

Golden Mahjong Set

Thu, 10 Apr 2008, 23:09:39 PST

Our family and in-laws love to play mahjong, but Karen and I didn't have a mahjong set ourselves until recently. A relative brought back a set for us from Taiwan, and when we saw the package, something told us it wasn't a professional set.

It's called "Gold Brings Luck" Mahjong set, and comes with an extra large wind die (see middle bottom):

When we started playing with it, I immediately felt something different, but I couldn't pinpoint it. It wasn't until I looked closely that I noticed that the pieces were not of the same sizes! Notice the piece on the right is slightly bigger than the piece on the left.

Also, it didn't come with was a set of rulers for straightening out the pieces, so I had to look for a home-made solution...

Home Depot paint sticks! Interestingly it also provides xylophone-esque music when the tiles hit them during shuffling, which is an additional plus! However, as much as I love the music that comes along with these home-made sticks, I would happily replace them with real ones.

Odelia Moments

Wed, 09 Apr 2008, 22:12:22 PST

Here's a few more pictures on Odelia. It's so strange to see how tiny her feet is! Notice the little black dot, which is not a mole but where the hospital heartlessly drew her blood...

Here's Odelia during a burping session...

Someone's practicing to be a future American Idol contestant...

Here's Odelia wearing a shirt (or bib?) with her own name, thanks to her Auntie Christine!

Here's a quiz. What expression is this?

If you guessed that it's the expression before she poops, you're absolutely right!

Hey look, here comes the Pope(ss)!

And here's Odelia in her sleeping sack. Perfect fit!

More Odelia moments to come!

Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Experiment

Tue, 08 Apr 2008, 23:34:45 PST

A few years ago, Karen and I had been eating to our hearts content with whatever pleased our palette. McDonald's, Jeem Chinese Restaurant, Salads, Dim Sum, etc. We had avoided trans fat, but not much else. When I got my cholesterol levels checked for the first time, my readings were decent:

LDL 119 (Desired below 130)
HDL 53 (Desired above 40)
Total: 196 (Desired below 200)

Then Karen and I got challenged to eat healthier to get those numbers even better. We ate less saturated fat, more grilled chicken type of food, Italian, and vegetable meals. When I checked my cholesterol level, I expected equal or better numbers but was surprised to find:

LDL 138 (Desired below 130)
HDL 60 (Desired above 40)
Total: 213 (Desired below 200)

I initially responded by abstaining from skin, fried foods, steak, fatty food, and basically any ingredient that would give food its taste. However, I realized if I kept withholding all eating pleasures, I might as well as become a Hare Krishna, so I abandoned the futile quest and returned to our typical meals.

Shortly afterwards, I came across an article about saturated fat which changed my diet once again. The article claimed that the "myth" was based on the fact that Americans ate more fat and had more heart problems, and Japanese people ate less fat and had less heart problems, and that cholesterol levels were related to heart problems, therefore, saturated fat must raised cholesterol levels. However, nomads who ate only meat had lower cholesterol than Americans. Also, if eating less saturated fat affected cholesterol, then all the people on Atkin's diet should have much lower cholesterol levels, but the opposite seemed to be true. The article also sighted possible skewed research results because we all assume saturated fat should cause higher cholesterol levels, so whenever a research indicated otherwise, it would be questioned as flawed. It made sense to me, so when I mentioned it to Karen, she said "Yoohoo" and started preparing nothing but Fatty Beef Ribs for the next week, and we haven't turned back since.

So when it came time to do another cholesterol check, I wasn't very optimistic. To my surprise I got:

LDL 96 (Desired below 130)
HDL 39 (Desired above 40)
Total: 151 (Desired below 200)

My cholesterol levels have dropped. Now despite my attempt to eat oatmeal, my HDL levels have dropped too. It seems to indicate that the best strategy for lowering cholesterol is actually counter-intuitive: Pig out at Tony Roma's instead of having my salad, eat that chicken thigh instead of the breast, and eat the Lard and skins. Only then will the cholesterol begin to drop!

Tummy Time

Tue, 08 Apr 2008, 00:30:43 PST

According to the info at Baby Center, babies should be rolling over around 2-3 months. Apparently Odelia is above the curve, as I witnessed this moment today, day 5:

I knew that Odelia was strong in how feisty in how effective she fights off my dragon grip on her feet during diaper changes, but learning to roll at day 5 instead of 2-3 months is something. At this rate, she may be able to stand in 2 weeks! Okay, so maybe not, but looks like I better not leave her unattended to grab something any more!

First Smile?

Sun, 06 Apr 2008, 20:36:49 PST

Just now Karen said that she saw Odelia smile. We had never seen her smile before. Frown? Yes. Cry? Check. Moody Look? Definitely. Smile? Never, until now. Unfortunately I was not first-hand witness. When I ran over to see Karen get Odelia smiling again, Odelia rolled her eyes on us.

More on Odelia

Fri, 04 Apr 2008, 20:58:05 PST

We apologize for keeping Odelia all to ourselves right now. Besides having to deal with all the challenges of adjusting to a schedule of 2 hours of sleep a day, apparently Odelia has inherited her dad's gene for the love for food. Even during her time in the womb, she was secretly pigging out, and it didn't seem to have changed after entering this world, feeding mostly around 1 hour and 30 mins at night. Needless to say, it takes a taxing toll on her parents. Had we opened for guests, it would be "Thanks for coming. See you later!" We're waiting for the moment when she can be seen more than 5 mins at a time.

By the way, as you know I love worship and have done that all my life, the name Odelia means "Praise God" in Hebrew. She will carry on the tradition of music and shall surpass her father. We can already tell she will be a great singer by her cry and her dedication. When you have 10 crying babies in the room, you will undeniably recognize her by the one giving it her all. We know... we hear it everyday!

Now before you think we've created a monster, I need to say that it may have been partially my fault. As a loving father, I, of course, do not wish any pain or harm to come in the way of my daughter. So when it comes to putting her in a straight jacket (swaddling), well, it was obviously a little tough to do when she's balling. However, I've repented of my ways and now I will pull the blanket with all my might, and she seemed to like it. Hopefully that will carry over, instead of her strong personality taking over.

With all the new parenthood stuff out of the way, Odelia truly is adorable though, possessing really flush cherry lips. No idea which side of the family those came from, but absolutely gorgeous.

Pictures of Odelia

Wed, 02 Apr 2008, 19:02:47 PST

Instead of keeping all of you in the dark about what Odelia looks like, here's a few pictures!

Odelia sleeping.

Odelia and Karen

Odelia and James

The new Lee family!

Welcome the New Lee's Family Member!

Wed, 02 Apr 2008, 11:52:46 PST

On April 2nd, 2:53 am, at 7 lb 15 oz, Odelia Kyra Lee took her first breath in this world. Both the mother and the child are doing fine. We dodged the April Fools bullet by about three hours.

The contractions started at 8am yesterday, were regular but would reset from time to time. Perhaps the Lord was answering our prayer about not having April Fools baby by resetting the contraction clock. At 7-8pm, difficult contractions began. By the time we arrived at Overlake, contractions were 2-3 mins apart and Karen was already 6 cm dialated at 100% effacement. Dr. Graham was impressed by how far along we got all by ourselves.

When Karen was pushing and finally I saw the hair of the baby, I nearly broke down. After all, we never had an ultrasound, so we had no idea what the baby looked like, if it was a he, or a she. Of course, having bought a basketball hoop and got the baseball bats ready, I was completely caught off guard when Dr. Graham said, "It's a girl!" I think we had 30 boy names and 3 girl names, but then girl names were far easier to pick. The first thing that crossed my mind was, "I guess we don't have to worry about circumcision."

On the other side, Karen did an absolutely amazing job handling the pain. However, without epidoral and opting for a natural birth, Karen has been forever traumatized by this experience of giving birth to an super-sized baby. And to think that just last week, we were snickering at the other doctor for guessing that our baby was 7 1/2 lbs. "Yeah, for a caucasian baby, maybe." Instead, we witnessed David giving birth to Goliath. Maybe this will fade from her memory in two years before her next one. Fingers crossed.

Visitations are currently on hold until the mother and the baby recover their energy. More details on this will be made available privately.

Boy or Girl?

Tue, 01 Apr 2008, 15:20:45 PST

Karen started having some contractions this morning, timed at around 12 minutes apart, 25s duration. By the time we got to the OB, it was 10 mins apart, 35s duration. Eventually it got to 8 mins, then 6 mins, 50s. Of course, during this time we're still praying that it would hold off until midnight, as we're racing against the clock.

Then all of a sudden it became irregular, went back to 10 mins, 50 s, and went to 16 mins, 52s, then 20 mins, 6 mins! Then it returned to 10 mins 45 s. What's going on? Is it the Lord's way of holding off the baby in answer to our prayer, or are we just experiencing Braxton Hicks? False labors are supposed to be felt higher and irregular, but earlier today we got it at a consistent regularity. Not sure what it all means yet.

In any case, here is your last chance to make a guess on whether our baby is a boy or girl! Here's a few pictures to help you decide:

So which is it? Boy or Girl?

Dr. Graham

Mon, 31 Mar 2008, 22:21:56 PST

The most hilarious thing happened with us. Just a few days ago, we called a friend about some private matter, and then our friend asked us about our baby and who our OB was. "Dr. Graham", we replied. As soon as our friend heard that name, she began a tirade about how upset she was with the doctor. She also had Dr. Graham as her OB, and the doctor mentioned during her routine visits that the baby's head was down. When the due date approached, Dr. Graham went on vacation, so another OB attended her that week. To her horror, the OB discovered that baby's head was actually up, and she needed an immediate C-section. She couldn't believe Dr. Graham made such a big mistake!

Coincidentally, our Dr. Graham had also been insisting to us that the head was down, and Dr. Graham also went on vacation this week, two weeks before the due date. By this time, goosebumps appeared on my arms and drops of swet began to roll down my forehead as I contemplated whether we had made a disastrous decision choosing our OB . Why hadn't we spoken to her about Dr. Graham earlier? With Karen due any day now, we had no choice but to follow through with this dire situation with Dr. Graham. What have we done?

Our friend then went on to mention that the reason she chose the doctor was because the doctor was female. Wait. Female? Karen and I looked at each other before rolling on the ground laughing because our Dr. Graham is actually male. Needless to say, we both breathed a sigh of relief as we once again look upon the arrival date with optimism.

Now if only we can make it past April 1st for that arrival date...

Casualty of Snow

Sun, 30 Mar 2008, 23:06:23 PST

Recall my mentioning of Cherry Blossom as an imagery for the arrival of Spring in my last blog? I love their appearance, especially when one exists outside my front yard, coloring the block for one lone week of the whole year before it sheds itself of all petals and hibernates until the following Spring. Unfortunately this year it shed more than just the petals, as it was struck by the unannounced arrival of the snow...

Unfortunately the branches was unable to withstand the weight of both the blossoms and the snow. Oh and how I used to love seeing everything covered in snow, until now.

March Snow?!

Sat, 29 Mar 2008, 23:34:20 PST

Just when I thought Winter has left town and Spring made its grand entrance with the blooming cherry blossoms, we get this...

Karen and I had a comforting discussion in December about how we were glad that we would have to drive in the snow during labor because of the baby being due in April. It appears that we spoke too soon!

The Anticipation

Wed, 26 Mar 2008, 23:42:13 PST

April 11th, 2008. The tentative date of the beginning. Or the end. Everyone familiar with this journey seem to offer the same condolences, that the days of the life as we know it is numbered. Date nights, TV marathons, and video games can be kissed goodbye. Sleeplessness, frustrating moments, and ceaseless work will rule the days. And nights. The luxury of quality eight hour sleep would be supplanted by short, interrupted naps. The eyes shall transform from the monochrome black and white into a crimson red traditionally associated with vampires. Some call this Doomsday, but others describe this as the beginning of the most wonderful journey one can take. In the end, they say, it will be all worth it.

I hope so.

One Tree Hill

Sat, 15 Mar 2008, 12:52:56 PST

The writer's strike had pushed us toward exploring new shows, and the One Tree Hill season 5 premier, which seemed like a new series, got us hooked. Who knows, maybe we'll even name our child Lucas. :)

Chargers, Seahawks out of playoffs

Fri, 25 Jan 2008, 00:46:36 PST

So this is a slightly late entry, but both of my teams have lost in the playoffs. Seahawks were put to shame by the Packers, but at least Holmgren is coming back next season! Chargers made it to AFC Championship, but couldn't punch it in the red zone. With no LT, slow Rivers, and hurt Gates, it's amazing they made it this long, and the fact Norv got conservative against the Patriots didn't help either. Oh well, but at least they put up a fight and didn't get blown out like the Hawks.

There's always next year.

Cutting the Cable Bill?

Sun, 13 Jan 2008, 22:21:58 PST

Not long ago, we finally retired our old trusty Panasonic 27" CRT television and upgraded to a new Panasonic 50" Plasma. Unfortunately HD programming is needed to see the difference, and I could count the number of HD channels available by Comcast with my toes. Hence I ask myself the question, why pay for all this when it's all available for free over the air? So I went on a little quest to try finding a way to save on cable bill.

First, I investigated what I can pick up from where I live, and for that, I found a nice web site, antennaweb.org that, given my location, revealed what channels I should receive as well as the direction of the stations. I later found that tvfool.com gave even better information, but either one works. After typing in my address, I found that I had all the local stations I wanted, but Fox would be very weak, so that would be my limiting factor.

Next, I tried hooking up some antennas. According to the web, all I need is any old UHF loop-style antenna, so I dug around my cobweb-filled garage and found an old Radio Shack UHF/VHF antenna...

When I tried it, the number of stations I got were limited and the signal strength wasn't great. So I did some research on indoor antennas and found that the Philips Silver Sensor was a great indoor antenna. I didn't find them being sold locally, and given that I wanted to be able to return it if it doesn't work well, I ended up with an antenna with a similar design, the Terk HDTVa.

This antenna worked well, and if I pointed it at a specific location, I was able to pick up FOX. There was one issue, however, which was that it was directional and there was no spot that would pick up all channels. Given that I had a Tivo HD, which is always recording, I needed an antenna I don't need to move.

Then I tried the omni-directional Terk TV-5, which is not as directional, but it was weaker and also was very sensitive to the degree of rotation of the antenna. Given that I still had to rotate the antenna, it might as well have been a directional antenna.

Finally I found the antenna that gave me all the stations...

The Radio Shack Indoor/Outdoor Antenna, 15-2187. It had great reviews, and given the size, it had a larger surface area, I decided to give it a try. Voila! I now have a spot where it picks up all channels! There's still some occasional breakup on a channel during rainy days, but it's certainly a whole lot better than the smaller indoor antennas. Despite some web sites mentioned that the higher the better, I found that the prime spot for picking up Fox was right on the ground next to the TV. It certainly isn't the designer furniture I was looking for, but with it only half visible, it was acceptable, even to Karen.

I have currently hooked up the antenna to my Tivo have given it a trial run for a few days, and so far so good. As long as the antenna has a lock on the station, the picture is perfect because it is digital. Now with the writer's strike, the original programming options are more limited, so this is the perfect time to cut the cable bill... completely!

Go Chargers, Seahawks!

Sat, 05 Jan 2008, 00:04:22 PST

The playoffs is here, and both my favorite teams, the Seahawks and the Chargers are both in the playoffs. The two teams have stadiums that will chew the other teams' ears off, and both have home field advantage, which is great.

While Seahawk's QB Hasselbeck is brilliant, I have my reservation about the hawks, though. The RB Alexander can't run a yard without falling straight into the turf, we're pressed to depend on the arms of Hasselbeck, and the game we had at Carolina revealed the weakness in that strategy, which is that external factors, such as wind, can really affect our result. As I type, I can hear the wind about to take my roof off, which is not a good sign. Hopefully the wind will die down a bit tomorrow.

As for Chargers, their problem is the exact opposite of Seahawks. The running game is excellent, as they have RB Tomlinson who does wonders, but QB Philip Rivers can be erratic and hit the umpire 10 feet away instead of his target. Then there's coach Norv Turner, who is riding the talents of this team. I suppose having won last 6 games of the season means they're how jelling together. Hopefully we won't see any boneheaded decisions from Norv during this off season.

So there. Let's go Chargers and Seahawks!

Eat the lard!

Thu, 03 Jan 2008, 23:52:25 PST

We've heard that you can't have too much of Vitamin C. Then we heard that too much of it causes cancer. We heard that eggs are bad because of the high cholesterol. Then we hear that perhaps it's not as bad as we thought.

Now we have articles about how saturated fat may not be as bad as we thought.
I've always wondered about that because Chinese people eat all sorts of fat, yet we don't see them having more heart issues.

Of course, studies change all the time, and you can't go wrong with "everything in moderation". But in the mean time, time to enjoy the hardy pig feet and beef ribs without the guilt!

New Years Resolutions

Thu, 03 Jan 2008, 03:04:30 PST

Every year it is good to set some new year's resolutions. The key to making good resolutions is creating attainable, measurable goals, so here's my crack at that list for the year of 2008:

I will post blogs more frequently, at least once a year.
I will keep the cleanliness of the house from being in disarray. The house shall never be compared to abandoned houses.
I will not leave my preopened oatmeal packages on the kitchen island after having emptied its contents, for longer than a 24 hour period.
I will not leave the soymilk container on the island when it is less than half empty, for longer than a 24 hour period.
I will not covet my neighbors' gadgets. I shall not go out and purchase the same item within 24 hours.
I will work out everyday. Yes, that's every single day. Of course, walking up and down the stairs should be considered step-aerobics...
I will wake up and get to work early everyday. The work day should start no later than noon.
I will sleep early every night. I need to be in bed and asleep before the sunlight is visible.
I will eat healthy and keep my cholesterol level under control. I will not eat any single fast food restaurant, such as McDonalds, more than once a week.
I will keep the TV watching under control. I will not use more than $20 in electrocity for powering on the TV in any given month.

There. Hopefully I can stay true to these goals for the year of 2008. Happy new year!

Enatai Beach

Mon, 06 Aug 2007, 23:01:29 PST

Our fellowship went to the Enatai Beach park for some sun and fun. Strangely, the park is directly under the I-90 bridge for some nice perpetual static noise. After potluck, we had water balloon tossing...

And three-legged race...

And Maddy went into the water for the first time...

For more pictures, visit the Enatai Beach album!

Tent Camping

Tue, 31 Jul 2007, 22:48:44 PST

Karen and I went on the ECC tent camping trip this past weekend with Happyfish. The initial plan was to arrive on Friday night, but due to some circumstantial events, our small group ended up arriving on Saturday morning, much to Karen's delight.

We proceeded to erect the 10-men tent...

Afterwards, we went down to the beach, where some jet skis were available to cruise on free of charge, courtesy of some brother in ECC. Erick and Jun took the initial run, squeezed the accelerator, and almost broke the 1 MPH barrier. Yes, my grandma could have walked faster than that. Evidently there was a foreign object caught in the vehicle, so my engineering instinct was unleashed as I attempted the delicate repair.

Having escaped shorting out the engine a few times, the repair was successful and the jet ski cruised down the runway at over 50 MPH...

When I took the helm, I decided to take it easy by squeezing the accelerator all the way, gliding down the waters through the slow region and nearly getting ticketed. So what's new?

After that, it was time for a change of pace, and we headed to the stable for some horseback riding. When we arrived, there was no one in sight. Having resisted the urge to hop on the horses for a self-guided tour around the region, we found another way to satiate that urge...

After that we got bored of playing horsey and started playing some caveman bocce...

Finally the cowboys returned and we each mounted a horse to ride into the wilderness, except when I gleefully hopped onto my horse, I ended up on a mule instead. I got gypped.

His dominance must have been the donkey side, as Charlie kept glancing left and right and stopped every 30 seconds to eat the surrounding foliage, holding up the line. When I tried to steer him, he appeared to be on autopilot and ignored my signals. When I left him alone, he ended up walking through the bushes instead.

With everyone's legs cramped up at this point, Karen assumed a funky posture to the relief the tension...

Then we had some BBQ dinner, sang some songs, and hit the sacks. The next morning, we were revitalized as we attended the Sunday service...

Well, some of us were revitalized anyway... For more pictures, go to the Tent Camping album!

Goodbye, Fuzzy!

Fri, 20 Jul 2007, 00:49:38 PST

On Wednesday, Karen noticed that Fuzzy's hind legs seemed to lack the usual strength. We hoped that it was just morning weakness, but by the afternoon Fuzzy kept sleeping and breathing hard. Normally, when we call his name, he would wake up with a mean demeanor, pat down our hand repeatedly with his small paws, which was really comfortable by the way until he switch to the biting maneuver, which was less comfortable. By night time, Fuzzy would not leave his house. We de-roofed the house and fed him water, then picked him up, and he just laid there, void of energy. He had no appetite, not even when his favorite sunflower seed was hand peeled and personally fed to his mouth. Something was definitely wrong.

By Thursday afternoon, Fuzzy didn't even have energy for water, so Karen drove Fuzzy to the vet, the Bellevue Center of Veterinary Medicine. Unfortunately, that was when we met doctor Death, who squeezed him all over and slapped him down, when he started shaking. Doctor death was not done. He picked him up again and strangled him, which was when Fuzzy perished at his evil hand. Needless to say, the place would not receive our recommendation to anyone other than those interested in paying for Euthanasia, without the mercy part.

So we bid farewell to our beloved little pet, who had been with us for 1 yr 8 mo.

We will miss you, Fuzzy!

Strolling Down Sculpture Park

Sun, 15 Jul 2007, 19:59:55 PST

Instead of initiating another battle with the persistent weeds in our backyard, Karen and I decided to take the day off from housing duties and stroll around the downtown Seattle.

Afterwards, we were a little tired, so we headed to Myrtle Edwards park noth of the piers to take a breather.

I had Karen go over to miniature peninsula and shot some pictures when suddenly an unexpected gust of wind caused an unexpected splash...

Then we noticed a new addition to the sidewalk resembling the an Oscar trophy making a splash...

Then we played with some artistic photoshoot...

and jumped to the area where the remaining pieces of sculture are...

The rest of the pictures can be found in the Waterfront gallery.

Who Is This Nose-Picking Old Man?

Thu, 12 Jul 2007, 23:00:38 PST

So many of you know that my picture vault is like the great void... only pictures go in, and none ever makes it out. Well, I intend to defy the conventional wisdom by periodically posting some long-post pictures, starting with... last year's Happyfish Costume Party at Jun's!

Jeffrey & Grace's Wedding!

Wed, 04 Jul 2007, 02:05:10 PST

Congratulations to Jeffrey and Grace for their beautiful wedding! Of course, the rest of us have been completely tired out from the endless amount of chores in the background...

Without further ado, let's see the bridesmaids...

and groomsmen...

here comes the bride...

Here are Mr. and Mrs. Ma!!

and the traditional bouquet toss...

Of course, Karen and I needed a picture with the focus of the event...

For more pictures, go to Jeffrey and Grace's Wedding section. Once again, congratulations!

The Chinese Floorboard Torture

Mon, 19 Mar 2007, 07:54:05 PST

The Chinese water torture, as I have heard it, consists of dropping a single drop of water between your eye-brow in a set interval. Even though the drop is tiny, but done at a regular interval and at a sensitive part of the body, the results can be mind-wrecking. Unfortunately I seemed to have discovered a similar torture device in my bedroom, where the incessant nocturnal floor popping sounds are driving me bananas. Every night, when the heating vent turns on, a space under the carpet, or perhaps in between dry walls, begins to pop at a regular interval. During the day the decibels may be overcome by ambient noise, but at night, the pop becomes the beating of the drums, the firing of a smoking gun, or the explosion of TNT. This is especially apparent when my brain activities have shut-down halfway and I'm halfway down the road to dreamland when I get rudely yanked by an invisible string, back into the very bed I was so comfortably lying dormant, only to be given back my complete consciousness.

This evil disturbance must end.

Getting home in the snow

Thu, 11 Jan 2007, 01:43:27 PST

Karen had been wishing for some snow in Seattle for quite some time now, and tonight it all came true... too true. By the time I wanted to leave work, the anxiously departing cars were bumper to bumper all the way to P2 of the garage. The Seattle Traffic site provided good information about travel times:

Travel time to Seattle 66 minutes
Travel time to Bothell 48 minutes
Travel time to Everett 93 minutes

There was only one minor detail missing:
Travel time to freeway: 100 minutes

I went back to my office, only to see a shuttle make its way across the driveway (span of 30 yards) in about one hour. By then, I decided the best way to get home was... the number 11 bus. My trusty feet.

Just to give you an idea of the situation:

No, none of those cars were moving. On the way I encountered some miniature snowmen...

In the end, it took 45 minutes to walk home, but all I can say is... home sweet home!

Siena

Tue, 24 Oct 2006, 01:02:27 PST

Living in Rome has definitely required some adjustments, as Karen and I had to re-learn various mundane routines. For example, I stroded down to the restroom for a #1, and it took me a while to identify the trigger which activated the system.

Anyway, after that we headed out Rome and decided to take the train. We noticed this one girl who must have skimped on her ticket, as her seat location was a little peculiar...

This is certainly most inconvenient when some passengers need to pass, but beyond that, it is most awkward to have to face a passenger for the entire duration of the trip. Yours truly happened to be that passenger.

It was one thing to be in the same compartment with 4 other passengers, but being observed like Jim Carrey in the Truman Show while we ate, read, and napped was most unpleasant.

After a few hours, we arrived at the destination, Palazzo Bruchi, where the doors were characteristically small...

And the keys were super high-tech...

Not to mention super-large size penthouses...

And included fancy breakfast served in your room! Okay okay, so it was some self-serve packaged food, definitely a downgrade from the Convent.

After being spoiled by the St. Peter's Basilica, we decided to check out the Duomo in Siena, and the facade was...

a facade in the truest sense. What timing... Anyway, at least not all sides were wrapped up.

Inside, the entire interior was lined with 172 Pope's heads, giving a very eerie feeling, as if it were straight from some Hunted House movie....

After that we ventured to Il Campo, the best square in Italy. No idea why it's the best square because it's just a flat piece of land...

We had dined on the square, and the food was actually quite good. We had some deliciously prepared Salmon... cooked to medium.

After this we joined the evening walk along Via Banchi di Sopra, basically the one road that runs through town. I think the whole town was shopping on this street, and it wasn't long before we reached the end, where all the young people from the town hung out.

I wonder if some of these kids will just grow up in this town and be sheltered from the rest of the world... Just when we thought we reached the end, we noticed there were people coming up from the underground with a Italian guard posted at the entrance. Hmm, what was it? A secret passageway? Nuclear testing? Matlab? Karen and I took out our courage, walked pass the guard, and descended the escalator, only to end up at...

A grocery store. Okay, maybe we got too carried away with our imagination.

For more pictures, check out the Siena gallery.

Siena was certainly a relaxing town, but we were about to hit the most recognizable monument of all. Where was this place? Why did the police start throwing people out? Find out next time on my blog!

Vatican City, Part 3

Thu, 19 Oct 2006, 00:13:24 PST

After our departure from St. Peter's Basilica it was already 4:30pm, so we ran to the Vatican Museum. Can you spot Karen in this picture?

One of the famous sculptures in this museum was the Torso. I thought it was some unfinished piece of... I later found out that this wasn't the entire work, but what's left of it.

Check out the impressive depth on the wall...

This being a Catholic museum, I didn't expect to find pagan goddesses here. Apparently they carried Antemis, goddess of fertility. There's a debate on whether those are breasts or bulls' balls.

Anyway, after this, we went to the highlight of this museum, the Sistine Chapel. When we entered the room, it was dim, the room was packed body to body with standing tourists who couldn't squeeze into a seat, and signs were posted at the entrances saying "No Noise. No Pictures". Of course, it didn't prevent people from attempting to take pictures or talk. Periodically, a loud "shhhh" would originate from a guard as the crowd quiets down, and the audio level would gradually build up in this again in this perpetual cycle.

Can you find the famous Adam and God portait?

After this we went to Campo 'de Fiori (Field of Flowers), where we had dinner. We got here around 6pm, but unfortunately the Italians typically have their dinner around 8pm, so most of the restaurants haven't opened yet, except for the touristy ones.

As we had dinner, we were treated to the Italian music with accordion et al.

Again, the Italians really try to preserve old artifacts, such as Theater of Pompey where Julius Caesar was assassinated, so these apartments were built right into the outer wall. Either that or they were trying to save material costs...

After dinner, we went on the "Night Walk Across Rome" tour from Rick Steve. Along the way, we noticed this poor dog chained up, with no owner in sight.

After this we went to Piazza Navona, the most interesting night scene with street music, artists, ice cream, fountains made by Bernini, etc. We tried the "Tartufo" ice cream, "Death by Chocolate". Fortunately it didn't taste like it sounds.

About half way through our enjoyment of the chocolate ice cream, some police cars, followed by some antique cars, started driving into the piazza, circling around, honking. After examining the Rick Steve's guide more closely, we realized this piazza used to be a race track back in the Roman days, and they kept the original shape of the tracks. I wish we had more than a couple centuries of history in the States...

After this, we walked to the Trevi fountain. The place was multitudinous even at 10pm. The magic of the place was that if you threw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, it'll grant a wish and ensure your return to Rome.

At first we were planning to visit the Spanish Steps after this, but unfortunately it was approaching 10:30pm and we dreaded being locked out of our rooms by the punctual nuns, so we decided to skip our last destination. Maybe the coin at the bottom of the fountain will ensure our return, but for now we could only enjoy the sight of the Spanish Steps in postcards. For more pictures of this day, check out the Vatican City gallery.

What will James and Karen's experience be as they arrive in the urban Siena? What was the most awkward train ride that James has ever had? And what about the church that deceived James and Karen? Find out next time on my blog! :)

Vatican City, Part 2

Sat, 14 Oct 2006, 10:40:27 PST

Descending from the dome wasn't as bad as climbing the dome, even if it's 323 claustrophobic steps. By the way, I didn't describe too many items in St. Peter's Basilica, so let me just highlight a couple of exhibits. On the right side was this statue, the only statue behind a glass.

Michaelangelo sculpted this statue, called Piet�, which means pity, is his only signed work. Unfortunately in 1972, some crazy dude with a hammer ran in and started chopping at the statue, so it's been behind bulletproof glass ever since.

Of course, being St. Peter's Basilica, one of the altars marked the spot where St. Peter was crucified.

Speaking of St. Peter, we saw a funky bronze statue of St. Peter. The right toe has been worn out from all the foot-fetishists, and there's usually a line for kissing the toe. To avoid foot-and-mouth disease, one could also kiss the hand and rub the toe. Today the whole center was sealed off, so it was not possible to pay reverence to Paul.

Speaking of which, this whole Basilica started giving me the creeps about how pagan everything seemed. From the statues, which appeared to be idols, to the altars, to having naked statues inside the Basilica, to the goddesses such as Helena.

Everything just seemed so Greek Mythology, except with Bible character substitution. Anyway...

After this we decended into the truly creepy crypt, where we were greeted by Egyptian sarcophagus.

Oh wait, that's the pope. Anyway, you see the resemblance. Having the popes being higher than the angels, I suppose it was no wonder they got their altar upon death.

We also passed by the tomb of the newer popes, who no longer got the same distinction but was lined up with lots of picture takers. One of these was the latest Pope John Paul II.

Further into the crypt where the tomb of St. Peter was.

You couldn't actually see the tomb unless you took a 10 euro tour, booked a week in advance, so this was all we could see.

After this we exited the Basilica and passed by the clowns, I mean, guards.

After this we ventured into the Vatican Museum, where more paganism manifested itself, but I'll leave that for another blog. :)

Vatican City, Part 1

Thu, 12 Oct 2006, 23:21:32 PST

One of the privileges of visiting Rome was bumping into monuments everywhere. Even when we walked on an obscure, tiny road, we saw walls from the first century fenced off under government protection...

At least that's what I concluded these were. Validating my theory would have been an easier feat had we spoken Italian, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

After this, Karen and I locked up our bags and squeezed onto the crowded #64 bus, most famous for its pickpockets. Thankfully with our vigilant eyes, we didn't miss the stop or any bags.

There were numerous fountains in Rome powered by their well-designed aqueducts. They were cool, refreshing, and best of all, free. Braving the chance of E. Coli infection, Karen and I loaded it up and it tasted better than bottled water.

Since we were still alive after partaking the liquid of unknown origin, we took some pictures of St. Peter's Square...

And St. Peter's Basilica, where the Pope typically gave his speeches...

Unfortunately because we didn't attend Sunday worship, I didn't get a chance to catch the pope and question him on his infallibility.

After lining up for quite some time, we finally arrived at the entrance of the Basilica, where we encountered this Holy Door. It's opened on Christmas Eve every 25 years, when the pope bangs the door three times with some mystic silver hammer and the door opens for pilgrims to pass through.

I asked Karen to walk up for a picture, but to my dismay, Karen decided to take a century before looking forward, so I ended up with a Shampoo ad instead.

When she turned around for the normal shot, we were informed by some bored guards that we could not take pictures with the door. "Only the door, not people". While I reasoned with him, I paved the way for hundreds of other tourists to take pictures behind him, but it certainly didn't help my own efforts. In the end it was a futile exercise.

So we entered St. Peter's Basilica...

Despite the basilica being two football fields away and could hold 60,000 members, the basilica was designed to be intimate using optical illusions. For example, the statue at the top was much bigger than the statue of the bottom, which made the place feel smaller.

Ironically I'd like some optical illusions around my house to make my house look bigger.

After finishing the Basilica tour, we decided to climb the dome. We first took the elevator to the first level, then climbed some stairs to the second level. Unfortunately the safety fence 10 feet tall slightly hindered our ability to exercise our photographic liberties.

Fortunately for us, through some ingenious creativity, circumvented the technical difficulty...

And we were rewarded with a shot of the basilica from the middle of the dome, thanks to my image stabilizing lens...

As we made our way to the upper dome, the path became psychodelic as the walls started twisting and the walkway shrunk alongside of the dome...

And when the rope appeared, we knew we were in for some serious staircase...

After squeezing through the final rat hole, we were greeted with a grand view of St. Peter's Square.

After this, we decended what appeared to be a prop for Slimfast commercial, considering how slim you had to be to squeeze through. Just look at Karen...

What's at the end of this staircase? What else happened in Vatican City? How did we we end up watching a modern Chariot race? Find out next time on my blog! :)

Rome, Part 4

Mon, 09 Oct 2006, 22:42:55 PST

After walking through the Colosseum, we headed over to the Roman Forum. We first went through the Arch of Titus, built by the Jews under the Romans for not worshipping the Emperor.

As we walked down the path, we tried to soak in the fact that these same large basalt stones were also walked on by Caesar Augustus 2,000 years ago. That's a lot more history than the puny 200 year history on any street in Seattle...

Then we headed toward the Main Square, which looked like my patchy dead lawn in the summer.

According to Roman legend, some twin brother Romulus (Rome) and Remus couldn't get dates, so they attacked the nearby tribe and snatched their women. I have no idea why they're proud of this story.

Of course, we had to visit the spot where Julius Caesar was burned, after being stabbed by his own Senators...

and the meeting place of the Senates who stabbed him...

I see that the statue is headless. I'm not sure if that was by design.

After that, we passed by this Victor Emmanuel monument. I must say that this place seemed much bigger in person.

After that we dropped by a bookstore to use the restroom. Even though I didn't speak Italian, there was no mistaking which bathroom is which...

It's also interesting to observe foreign forms of cute transportation...

as well as the transportation for the police department...

and the aftermath of the transportation device's foul defilement of the street... oh wait, I didn't take a picture of that.

Afterwards, we swung by Gelateria della Palma for our first taste of the famous Gelato that everyone says we must try in Europe.

I don't know what all the raving was about because it tasted just like ice cream. I suppose it was a little thicker...

After this we arrived at the Pantheon, a roman temple dedicated to all of the gods. Then in the Middle Ages, it became a Christian church dedicated to all the martyrs.

With this engineering marvel, it had a nice and bright skylight illuminating the interiors. I love skylights.

It's the only building continuously used since it was built. Pretty cool, huh?

After this, we were a little hungry, so we decided to go to Cafeteria Brek, with "a modern, efficient atmosphere and cheap prices". Unfortunately when we arrived, we saw a note on the door that said... hmm... something we didn't understand. But we did understand the universal implication of a locked door.

So we took a detour... a long detour, and arrived at another Rick Steve recommended restaurant:

Ristorante Grotto del Teatro di Pompeo, sitting atop an ancient theater, serves good food at great prices, perfect if you want to dine on a characteristic cobbled street, busy with strolling people and musicians. It's well-established, albeit a bit tired, but always populate. Their pasta radicchio (made with red endive) is good.

So we stepped in, and a rude waitress pointed to a table for us to sit down. On the table sat a wine glass... with lipstick mark on it. Hmm, definitely off to a good start.

We didn't ask for any bread, but she took the order and brought us some anyway, one of which has already been cut in half. Either she was really nice and precut it for us or the previous customers did. She also brought the wrong size of the water. After about 10 minutes we finally waved her down to explain it to her, and she realized it was meant for the table next door and came and just grabbed it and moved it over.

Finally we got our order of pasta radicchio...

I have no idea why took we the suggestion of an American (Rick Steve) for food because frankly we were... less than impressed. The other dish we ordered, the seafood pasta, turned out to be much better.

Finally we were ready for the check, which she managed to produce by scribbling on a piece of paper. How ghetto. We also noticed 4 euros for the precut bread. I wished I could have left no tip... oh wait, I didn't leave any tip! But then neither do the Italians so it didn't really matter.

At least on the way back, we were treated to a nice nightly stroll with a full moon and a night scenery of the Victor Emmanuel monument...

We were able to find our way back to meet our 11pm curfew... barely :) For more pictures, take a look at the Rome 3 Gallery. I will be adding comments in individual pictures in the gallery soon.

Next stop, Vatican City!

Wallace Falls!

Sat, 07 Oct 2006, 00:56:19 PST

Karen and I aren't hiking people. You'd think that being exposed to the panaramic view of the evergreens here in the Northwest would have transform us, but nope. Last week, our small group forced us all into the jungle in the form of a tent-camping trip to Wallace Falls, where Erick insisted that the hiking trail is super easy.

Jun brought an oversized 12 men tent partitioned into two sleeping quarters and a common area. As small group tradition, we had to play a few games of Bang before we hit the sacks...

I must say that this is one interesting camp ground. There were loud popping noises in the parking lot (popcorn machine? wild animals?), and the unmistakable music of the passing train serenaded us through the night.

In the morning, we identified the source of the popping noise...

On the way toward the trail to the Upper Falls, Karen and I discovered this sign...

Hmm, that black windy diamond didn't seem to suggest an easy trail...

Definitely not an easy trail. After suffering immense dehydration, we finally reached the destination.

Where we were greeted by a stealthy thief...

A chipmunk. It's the first time I've seen one! I guess that made the trip all worth it. :)

Click here for more pictures from Wallace Falls.

Ancient Chinese Secret?

Thu, 05 Oct 2006, 23:14:19 PST

When Karen and I flew down to San Diego during Mark's wedding, I was recovering from a cold and was coughing incessantly. My mom, with her concerned demeanor, unveiled the following...

What is it? Apparently it's an ancient Chinese family secret herb passed down through the generations for fighting coughs, and my grandpa is the sole possessor of this profound knowledge. Being a scientifically enlightened individual, I refused the intake of this dirt-like crap.

My dad's friend, who flew in from Taiwan to attend my brother's wedding, also had a cough and took some. After a few days, my dad's friend's cough went away while mine lingered at my throat. Curiously, I inquired about the source of its powers. According to her, western medicine addresses symptoms while eastern medicine cures the source. Inside us there is "Chi" at work, and this powder dispels the evil "Chi" and rectifies the root of what's causing the cough. o-kay...

Still, I couldn't deny the empirical evidence of my dad's friend's miraculous recovery, so I took a teaspoon of this dirt and drank some water, a cruicial element of this formula. The powder tasted like mint mixed with ginger, and guess what, the cough went away!

Until an hour later, anyway. Then I started coughing again. I immediately went to my mom and my dad's friend with the "aha! it doesn't work!" but they explained that I needed to keep taking it for it to be effective. So here we were. I could keep taking the placebo and when my throat eventually heals, all the glory and honor goes to the powder, or I could stop taking it and be scolded by my mom for being stubborn every time I cough. I was in a no-win situation.

So does the miracle powder really work? I don't know, because I decided to stop taking it. I did bring a bottle of it with me to Seattle, but it being an ancient Chinese secret, I just couldn't bring myself to use any of this precious... dirt. :)

Texas Hold'em Tournament

Tue, 03 Oct 2006, 02:32:59 PST

I'm into Poker. I've watched many episodes of World Series of Poker, including the luckiest guy who won the main event this year, Jamie Gold, who seemed to give endless streaks of bad beats. Now some say that Poker is all about luck, and in a way, it is, but obviously some people with their skills are able to capitalize more on the luck they're given. Me? I never get lucky in anything... if I'm playing rock, paper and scissors with Karen, she'll beat me 9 out of 10 times. I really need to squeeze the miles out of what little luck I have.

By the way, some Christians will say there's no such thing as luck because God is sovereign, and they would be right. For someone who is omniscient, God knows every flip of the coin in advance. For the rest of us who isn't omniscient, however, the outcome of the coin toss becomes... "luck"... because we don't know the result in advance. Just thought I'd clarify that before I get doctrinally bashed by my fellow brethrens.

Anyway, I logged in at PartyPoker as raid123 and gave the PartyPoker hourly tournament a shot for the first time (play money, so no real money involved). The first game I played had 2980 Entrants with payout for the top 130, and... Not too bad... 102 ... at least I placed in the money!

So I decided to play just one more game (to Karen's dismay). This time there were only 1900 entrants, and... Number 1 Baby!! :) Of course, not that I'm about to delude myself into thinking I'm great or anything, but at least I know something about Poker!

My Brother Ties The Knot!

Wed, 27 Sep 2006, 00:12:51 PST

A couple weeks ago, Karen and I flew down to L.A. to attend my brother's wedding. If you know Mark, you'd know he likes to be... different... so he decided to get married on the Yacht, Endless Dreams.

Unlike the Seattle sub 60 weather, Long Beach was quite nice...

The yacht was divided into three levels, and the ceremony was on the top level...

I was the Best Man, but of course, I had to pretend that I didn't have the ring to lighten things up...

The Unity Candle is very common in a wedding, but Mark and Sy opted for ... the Unity Sand. I haven't seen this one before, but it was neat.

After the ceremony, we went downstairs to the lower level for the reception. Then we came back up to the second level for the dance floor, where my brother busted out his moves...

After that came the bouquet toss and the garter toss... at least that's what others would have had. Instead of the garter, Mark did a little digging...

And came out with an unexpected object!

One of Mark's groomsmen, Mark Anderson, was the happy recipient of this artifact...

Anyway, for more pictures on Mark's wedding, check out Mark & Sy's Wedding in the photo gallery. Congratulations, Mark!

Karen and I bought a new home!

Mon, 04 Sep 2006, 15:04:40 PST

It's a new two-story home with a nice grand lookout area at the top of the structure, with lots of square footage! Oh, by the way, we're talking about a new home for Fuzzy, our dwarf hamster, in case you were conned into reading this blog thinking Karen and I made some additional investment in real estate. Let's recall where Fuzzy lived for the past 10 months...

Aside from sleeping and eating, his only other activities were running in the perpetual spin wheel and wiping the window with his paws, armed with overgrown toe nails. We decided that with half the space of the aquarium taken up by Fuzzy's household items, it lacked the space for him to explore and run around, so we decided to upgrade his home and provide additional physical activities for his feeble mind. When we returned from Petco, we assembled his new home...

Good news and bad news. The good news is that the new luxury home had an oversized bedroom with vaulted ceiling on the first floor, a dining room on the second, and a view terrace at the top. The bad news? Fuzzy didn't know how to climb the tubes to get from first floor to second floor. He would consistently climb about a third of the way, get freaked out, and turn around. As a rodent, he's got the innate ability to crawl into tight spaces, right? I guess not after living in an aquarium for 10 months.

So we placed the luring sunflower seed at the top of the tube and left the house for a Labor Day weekend family gathering. When we returned, the sunflower seed sat untouched, and Fuzzy was still ceaselessly working out on the spin-wheel without food or water. From time to time, he laid still on the floor with puppy eyes. What did this mean? Could our little white Fuzzy be athletically challenged? Is he unable to accomplish simple feats that his peers have been excelling at for years?

We decided to wait for him to make a desperate attempt at finding water by running through the tube, but it never happened. Since we didn't want to wake up the next morning with a dead rodent in the cage, we decided it was time for some tough love. While Fuzzy never made it up the tube, he did occasionally enter the tube to explore, and it was during one of these moments that I stuck my palm out and sealed the entrance to the tube. He immediately noticed something was wrong, turned around, tried to squeeze his nose through the gaps of my finger but to no avail. He also attempted clawing his way back to the house, but that too was futile. Finally after some struggle, he realized that there was no way back, so he built up his courage and started clawing his way up. He slipped a few times along the way, but he was determined to reach the other end of the tunnel. Eventually, he made it to the top, where he found himself some water, some food, and a huge sunflower seed, his favorite. While Karen and I were busy watching TV, he even managed to squeeze up to the lookout point and enjoy the piece of peanut we accidentally left in there. Throughout the night, he proudly exercised his newfound ability by continually climbing and descending between the first and second floor, and occasionally up the lookout point. It was certainly a relief to know we haven't been raising a wimp all this time.

Now I could have played the role of a human escalator and shuttled Fuzzy back and forth between the levels with my hand, but then he would never feel challenged to climb the tube and would be missing out on enjoying his new habitat to its fullest. It struck me that very often, we're like Fuzzy. We're so comfortable with where we are and we become complacent and don't realize our potential. At that moment, God may block or take away what we're so used to. While we may be upset, fearful, or be afraid of uncertainty, as long as we trust in God and know He wants the best for us, we can press on facing the unknown. In the end, we'll accomplish what He knows we're capable of all along, and open up possibilities that we didn't even know existed.

Now if only Fuzzy can learn how to use a toilet...

Roman Colosseum, Day 3

Mon, 21 Aug 2006, 22:59:35 PST

(continued from previous Europe trip entry...)

Now we were ready to hit the big Roman attractions, and where else could we have chosen but...

The Colosseum. Pictures do not do justice the size of this monster. As soon as we descended the steps to approach the structure, we were greeted by these friendly Gladiators, who Karen took a picture with...

What a nice service from the Colosseum, I thought. What? You want me in the picture too? And you'll take the picture for us? Hand you the camera? Now wait a minute...

As soon as I denied his request, he immediately asked for money. Initially I refused, but after some haggling, I relented and handed him just a few petty euros. He watched me in disgust as we hurriedly zipped out of there. Apparently I had missed this crucial paragraph in my guidebook:

Beware of Goofy Gladiators: For a fee, the incredibly crude modern-day gladiators snuff out their cigarettes and pose for photos. They take easy-to-swindle tourists for too much money. Watch out if you tangle with these guys (they're armed... and accustomed to getting as much as 100 euros from naive Asian tourists).

I suppose we got off easy.

It may be difficult to identify the long line in this picture, but a long line runs somewhere along the middle of the building. Armed with the Rick Steve guide, we headed to a secret passage that led to a covert ticket booth at a deserted side of the Roman Forum. Colosseum wait time: 1 hour. Deserted entrance wait time: 2 minutes.

After what seemed like an endless flight of stairs, we entered the interior...

saw some ancient roman misplaced labels...

and breathed in the immense size of the interior of this place. Pictures cannot do justice unless the picture is enlarged to an appreciable dimension.

The bottom part was supposed to house different trap doors for wild beasts to appear and devour the gladiators.

Finally, we've visited our first Roman attraction--a building from the first century where the Romans stuck two theatres together to watch people get their body parts chewed off and people getting killed. Such savage sport... glad we don't have anything like this today. Oh wait, I guess there's boxing.

After exiting the colosseum, we headed toward...

...the Arch of Constantine, where Emperor Constantine defeated Maxentius in the Battle of Milvian Bridge after seeing the vision of a cross in the sky the night before. This is where Christianity is legalized. Before AD 300, you were killed as a Christian, but afterwards, you were killed for not being one.

After this, we headed over to the Roman Forum next door, but I'll share that next time, on my blog!

3D Floor Murals

Sun, 23 Jul 2006, 23:27:20 PST

I apologize for those of you awaiting the next chapter of my epic, but I must insert a breather. I came across these floor murals and thought it was amusing.

What's a floor mural? Before you google on it, a slight disclaimer: I actually made the term up, as the original spam was sent in Mandarin. Let me first describe how it's created, and then I'll show you some samples.

First, some guy vandalizes the pavement...

Then he takes a picture and comes up with a plan...

Then the execution...

And behold, the three-dimensional illusion!

Actually, I thought it was pretty good until I saw this coke bottle...

This next one's okay...

For this next one, I like the powdery blend into the ice.

Wow, impressive reflection...

This one's a little more cartoonish, but still decent...

The shadows in this one are amazing... It almost seems like there are two guys crawling on the floor.

This one looks more like a cutout...

Spidey looks distorted in this one...

The guys are distorted, but the well texturing is very well done...

Looks like people are walking around this one...

Nice depth on the dirt...

Box of markers...

And this one takes the cake for the details of the crowd and the sense of height...

As impressive as this was, the experimentation with 3D art goes as far back as Michaelangelo and Raphael, but you'll have to read about that in one of my future blogs on Europe, of course.

Rome, Part 3

Wed, 19 Jul 2006, 23:28:27 PST

(continued from previous entry)

As Karen and I headed out in our Quest, we had to hike across the elegant streets of Rome, covered with cobble stones.

While the street texture may prove difficult to navigate in high heels, Karen and I were able to romantically strode along the Italian streets in our sandals. Along the way, we noticed the excellent parking job of some of these locals.

As we entered the major street of Via Nazionale, we observed the extravagant facade with statues on many buildings...

Also, Rome buildings were often painted with the bright, cheerful portion of the visible spectrum. Home Depot would make a fortune in Rome.

At the end of Via Nationzale, we entered the gigantic Piazza della Repubblica...

There used to be wood furnaces that heated up the water for some serious bath, a long, long time ago. In the center stood the statue of Victor Emmanuel (whoever he is), and surrounding it were four water nymphs (censored).

Finally, we descended into the underground mall of the train station (Termini) in search of the cable, but none of the stores carried it. On the way, I attempted to make an ATM withdraw, but instead of the "Thank you, here's your money", I got something equivalent to "No money for you! Card not enabled for international withdraw." Oh oh. Houston, we got a problem.

At this point we were famished, so we dropped by a self-service restaurant.

My seafood salad was surprisingly delicious...

But Karen got what appeared to be raw Mongolian BBQ platter...

I hope it was really prosciutto wasn't labeled "E. Coli 7 Euros".

As we made our way to the cassiere (cashier), a huge advertisement caught my attention: "Speciale: Cappuccino 0.50 Euro". At such an inexpensive price, we bought one, thinking of sharing the warm, luscious coffee over lunch. Instead, we got this...

The size of the cup proved to be insignificant, and the volume of the content was even more underwhelming. For the record, not a single sip had been taken prior to the photography.

After lunch, we ventured across the land of the terminals to seek the wisdom of the masters at the TI (Tourist Info), who set us out on a journey to the nearest computer store. Finally, a glimmer of hope! After arriving at the store at 3:30, we glanced inside only to stare into darkness. Closed. What self-respecting store is closed at 3:30 in the afternoon! A quick inspection of the sign revealed the hours 8-1, 4-6. Slackers! Apparently it was common for Italians to take a siesta, or an "afternoon nap/rest".

As we waited impatiently across the street at Piazza Indipendenza, the atmosphere of Europe became evident as the music of accordian surrounded the place...

Finally at 4pm, the store opened. Once again we were met with the disappointment of visiting a store that sold the Ipod but not the cable. A salesperson pointed us to yet another store, extending our scavenger hunt. Along the way, we eyed an European furniture store in gluttany, wishing we could import it all...

After arriving the store, once again we found Ipod, but no cable. At this point were struck with despair, so we returned to the first computer store to salvage our vacation by purchasing their cheapest cable... the one came with an Ipod. As I tried bargaining with the manager to explain the ethical implications of bundling an Ipod with the cable, he replied, "If you need just cable, go to Apple store". Apple store?! Where!!!

To make a long store short, it was a Mac Store and... without the IPod bundle, it was indeed easier on the wallet. Praise God! Mission accomplished.

On the way back, we noticed the nationalism of the Italians...

And took some random pictures, now that memory space was no longer an issue...

For dinner, we went to the Flann O'Brien Irish Pub, which according to Rick Steve's Italy Tour Guide, "is an entertaining place for a light meal, fine Irish beer, live sporting events on TV, and perhaps the most Italian crowd of all." Being a novice at ordering Italian cruisine, I inquired the waitress about their special.

"Lasagna", she replied.

"Uno Lasagna", I ordered the authentic italian food by giving her the finger. The index finger.

As a side note, I didn't realize that the index finger actually meant two in Italy. One would use just the thumb to indicate "one". Glad she understood, because contrary to what I had ingrained into my mind as Lasagna as early as infancy, the plate that came was...

Ravioli skins in Ravioli sauce?! "Lasagna", the waitress insisted. Oh... okay.

Now that our first quest is complete, which sights and monuments shall James and Karen uncover? What other Italian cultural nuisances will unfold? What about the ATM situation and the inability to replenish our cash supply? Find out next time... on my blog!

Rome, Part 2

Mon, 17 Jul 2006, 22:02:00 PST

(continued from yesterday)

Apparently the IPod plug arrived in Europe with us but the USB cable connecting the iPod to the plug itself did not. This Series of Unfortunate Events left us with the need to save space by lowering the picture resolution to those on par with mosaics. Here's a sample of that...

IMG style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; HEIGHT: 400px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px" alt="" src="/blog/Images/20060820/mosaic.jpg">

After struggling with this, we decided against it as it might be a difficult undertaking to find picture frames for our 8mm x 10mm pictures. To salvage this fiasco, we decided to turn our next day into an adventure: "The Quest for the Holy Cable".

The next morning, Karen and I woozily woke up and stumbled our way to the breakfast table. I selected my choice cereal...

...and scooped some milk out of the cocktail bowl.

As I poured it on my cereal, I noticed that the Italian milk exhibited a peculiar lumpy texture, the texture of... yogurt!! Oops. Looks like this bowl is making its way to Karen.

I figured it was time to sober up through the potent aid of caffeine. I approached the coffee machine, depressed the button labeled "Cappuccino", and voila! Out gushed this cappuccino...

I took a sip. Mmmm...... Not bad. Would have been nicer, though, had there actually been coffee in this cream. A nun later explained (with words none of which I understood), that to get Cappuccino, the cup needed to be filled with expresso first. In America, when I see a button labeled "Cappuccino" and I press it, I expect "Cappuccino". Apparently the Italians think otherwise.

Then I picked up a couple of Italian breads. They are always deviously served cold and impart a sour taste. Italian bread is versatile, however, as it doubles as a weapon of mass destruction when tossed and can easily penetrate a wall or create an oversized bruise on a human target.

The Nutella has its origins in Italy and tasted just as good as the ones in the States. Then there was the Schinkencreme...

Took one bite. Yup. Cat food. Garfield would love this stuff.

Afterwards, we headed out toward the Main Terminal in search of our treasure. What would we find along the way? Would we find the cable? Find out next time... on my blog!

European Adventure

Sun, 16 Jul 2006, 02:13:00 PST

Back in May, Karen and I plucked ourselves from our daily routines and took a three week vacation to Europe. Neither of us had been there, but we've certainly heard of its reputation for two things: lots of history... and lots of theft. Many of you have expressed the desire to see our pictures before your grand-kids are born, so let me just take you through our journey through select pictures.

The trip didn't sink in until we hopped on the Northwest plane and realized we were finally going to take a step in the European soil! The plane definitely had an upgrade in the multimedia system since the last time I rode it.

40+ Movie on demand! This includes Blockbuster movies, Disney movies to quiet those noisy brats, and games including trivia that you can play with other people on the plane! Wow. The ability to pause the movie when the rude pilot interrupted us or when food came was priceless. The geek in me noticed it was a linux system with each screen as a different console, so perhaps there's some market opportunity for Microsoft here.. Oops, back to our story.

Our connecting flight was in Netherlands, and everything felt like an American airport, aside from the language, until we noticed airport security dressed in green camouflage suits and carried semi-automatic weapons suspiciously resembling the AK-47s. Yeah. I was glad I wrote my will before I left town.

When it came to nature calls, Netherland airport took the cake. As I walked in, soothing ambient music filled the air, and I was surrounded by a gorgeous view of the city... wallpaper. I must give credit where credit is due, as their urinal design is a piece of excellent engineering. The contemporary design of this stall is elegant, and yet the ergonomics of the design provide more splash resistance. Talk about raising the bar.

Now with one panoramic view across all the walls, the entire experience felt eerily like doing a #1 onto someone's roof, but there was something mysteriously soothing about taking care of nature... in nature. (Jeffrey should know, after that "Ferry" incident. )

Upon arriving in Rome, Italy, we decided to take the Leonardo Express, a train that connected the airport with the city. Wow, a city that succeeded in building aiport connection rails. I was definitely not in Seattle any more.

Then we took a walk through a good portion of the city and finally found the first place we're staying, Il Rosario. A convent.

After a short nap for the jet lag, the night had descended and hunger had struck, so we randomly picked a place to dine. One thing I have to say... don't take American service for granted. The Italian waiter was slow and unresponsive beyond belief! The worst Chinese restaurants in America seemed like Red Robins to this place when it comes to service.

After what seemed like an eternity, we got our orders, a tuna pasta...

and some Italian pizza...

Don't be fooled by my photography. We were slightly disappointed, as the quality of this food was easily exceeded by Karen's own cooking, thanks to her private tutor, Giada de Laurentiis on the Food Network. Maybe we hyped ourselves up too much for authentic Italian food, but this stuff was certainly... edible.

After that we headed back to the convent.

Our room was institutional and smaller than those found in most American hotels, but it was immaculate and came with a private bathroom. After Karen took a shower, we realized a design flaw...

The place had nothing for water containment, and the shower drain, partially blocked by the mat, was also partially cluttered. The result...

No, those weren't shiny tiles. The reflection stemmed from the deluge that escaped the confinement of the bathroom and ventured through the doorcrack into our bedroom. I certainly wasn't expecting to role-play a hotel maid on our first night in Italy.

After taking care of the floor, I opened my bag and ... OH NO! We forgot to bring a critical item, the item so crucial that it would decimate the fabrics of our vacation. Which item was this? And how did we rectify this situation? Find out next time... on my blog.

Chirping Fireplace

Sun, 07 May 2006, 22:15:14 PST

In the past month, some flying fiends decided to take refuge in a corner of our roof above the fireplace with no access from the inside. Fearful of the foul discharges that could transform my siding into a mural, the thought of staging a siege by denying access to their entrance and devoiding them of nourishment had crossed my mind, but my compassionate side suggested otherwise. Thus we coinhabited with the unwelcomed guests.

Yesterday, a tapping sound and flapping of wings echoed through the acoustics of fireplace. The mother must have submerged into the abyss of the fireplace fixture. Without access to the space, I had no choice by to lay still watching TV while she was destined to rot in the confines of the wall gap for all eternity.

All that changed today at noon, however, when she bumped her way through the labyrinth of drywall and 2x4s and made her way to the exit and into our family room.

After arming myself with anti-bacterial device in the form of baseball gloves, we began a 15-minute game of tag going from the family room to the guest room to the living room. Each time she was able to elude my dragon claws and glide away. Finally, as the bird jetted its way out of the guest room, Karen executed the spiderman web maneuver and enveloped the rascal with a piece of towel.

So I carried the towel, along with the bird, to the world that she knew before the inadvertant self-captivity, and exposed her to the ray of sunshine she's yearned to see. As quickly as she entered, she wisped away with the waves of the wind. She left no words of gratitude, just some excreta for us to clean up.

Kenzie!

Sat, 25 Mar 2006, 09:50:17 PST

Sorry for waiting a whole trimester before posting these. I wanted to share some shots of kingkongrahrahrah's newest addition to the family, Kenzie:

Congrats for the all-natural birth of their new baby girl!

Door Knock... at 3am!

Sun, 19 Mar 2006, 22:17:00 PST

Knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock. Click click.

In the middle of the night, a loud serious door knocks woke Karen and I up. It was a constant pattern of around 10 knocks, followed by an attempt to open the door, followed by more knocks. As I made my way toward the door, I attempted verbal communication with the unexpected guest, but the knocking just continued. At that point, I decided to bring in professional help: 911.

While the police were on their way and I was on the phone with the operator, and Karen was able to see that the person had long, blond hair. We had no idea whether this person was drunk, lost, or outright insane. When the police arrived, I was able to eavesdrop on part of the conversation: her name was Emily and she was 17 years old. She must have been drunk, and it was freezing outside (31 degrees)! Well, at least it wasn't some psycho who recently got released from some mental institution.

The police also asked her about a cut on her hand, and shortly afterwards, the paramedics arrived to tend to her wounds. A police came to the door to explain the situation, and what I opened the door, I noticed what appeared to be an imagery from a R-rated horror movie...

The police explained that I should clean the door with a bleach solution and while we can press charges for trespassing, there's no compelling reason to. He also mentioned to be careful of the broken pieces of glass that she got her cuts from...

Finally after cleaning the mess up, we were able to return to bed. It certainly was a peculiar event, but at least she's in good hands now and return to her home, away from this cold, freezing night.

iPod and Civic

Sat, 28 Jan 2006, 22:52:01 PST

Over Christmas I bought Karen an iPod but quickly we realized one problem--we couldn't play the music in the car! Short of purchasing a BMW with built-in iPod support, I explored the internet for various options and came up with three different solutions:

Purchase a device that will broadcast a radio signal over FM for $50+, but it's radio quality and is prone to static and interference.
Use an FM wired modulator, which connects the FM signal directly to the line, but it's still inferior to even a cassette adapter.
Connect directly to the CD Changer port using a special device called Blitzsafe.

Of course, I opted for the third option.

I purchased the Blitzsafe Honda-To-iPod interface from LogJam, which came with an iPod connector that also charges the iPod, a nice feature if the iPod isn't charged. Unfortunately taking my car apart wasn't as straight forward as portrayed on the web. My model has a cup holder, which makes it harder than the regular model, so I carefully spent an hour and made no progress. Hoping not to damage my car, I thought about professional installation, but they all charged $50+ and has a wait of a week. That was too much--I need it NOW! So I met up with my friend John, a Honda Mechanic, and he handed me some diagrams of the lower panel. I came home, took the panel apart, plugged in the cable, and in less than an hour, had the iPod playing over the car stereo in CD quality.

In the end, it was more work than expected, but totally worth it!

Return of James the Photographer

Mon, 23 Jan 2006, 22:11:35 PST

After some professional photo gigs for Erick and Huey's weddings, I took a leave of absence from the world of photography (I took a break from the world of blogging too, but that's a different story). Right before Christmas, I decided to vent out the photo bag when I discovered that my family room is filled with snow!

Oh wait... no... my camera just kept overexposing shots! For the Fuzzy shots, I had to resort to using Full Manual mode, taking 427 tries to get 2 good shots! I suppose to look on the bright side, we were planning to go to Europe, and finding this problem out in Italy would have been... most unpleasant.

So I headed where everyone else would when they encounter problems like this--the internet. After a little research, it was apparent this is the precursor to the BLOG problem. Wait? BLOG? No, BGLOD. It stands for "Blinking Green Light Of Death". Apparently all Nikon D70's shipped in the first 4 months of the product was prone to this issue, even if the camera is sitting untouched collecting dust in its original box. There's a recall service advisory for this, but with a catch--to qualify for the free service, the green light has to be blinking. Unfortunately mine wasn't blinking. I had all the symptoms leading up to it, but not the problem itself.

Knowing that this will eventually deteriorate into BGLOD, I placed it back in its bag and went on our Christmas vacation with our old Canon S400. Of course, having used a D70 for so long, this was like getting used to driving a BMW and then being forced to drive a Corolla (no disrespect to you Corolla owners... I'm sure it's a... um... respectable car). When I came back... lo and behold! Blinking Green Light of Death! Yes!!!

I promptly sent it in for service, and that was two weeks ago. I just got my camera back today and we'll give it some time to see if everything is fixed. However, for how much I paid for this thing, I expected a little more than a timebomb... oh well. At least it's working now.

Overnight Bowling Star?

Sun, 22 Jan 2006, 01:58:04 PST

Bowling has been one of those sports that I have had mixed success. On Friday, my team had a morale event at the bowling alley where I showed off my exceptional skills by handily beating the other three players in my lane. Now had I broken a hundred, it may have been a more satisfying experience, but I'll take the win. The second game I did better, scoring about 156. However, in the third game I once again entered a (very) cold streak, but half way through the game, a coworker who was on a perpetual cold streak told me, "I'm now trying the spin. It's really fun... you should try it!" Because I'm always up for a challenge (and because it would cover up my subpar start), I decided to take the plunge and learned "the bowling secret".

Talk about night and day! Not only did I fare better the second half, but before I left, I barely missed getting a turkey by getting "X X 9/" ! Just to check that it's not a fluke, the next day Kari, Tim, Karen and myself went bowling, and using only spin shots, I played three games and never a game below 110. Ok, I better stop before this starts sounding like an infomercial. "If you call in the next 10 minutes, not only will I share this secret, but I'll give you a free pair of bowling shoes, absolutely free..."

The game of bowling would never be the same again. Anyone up for bowling? ;)

Who Won The Apprentice Tonight?

Fri, 16 Dec 2005, 00:01:36 PST

(warning: spoilers below)

Up to this point, Randal had been a class-act. In all episodes, it seemed like Randal spoke highly of his peers, was full of integrity, and was full of heart. He also seemed genuinely founded in his faith, making references to his church. So tonight, when Trump asked him which project he would like to head, Karen and I fully anticipated him shying away from the Casino. Wrong. He fully embraced grandeur of Atlantic City, taking us by surprise.

However, it wasn't until the final 5 minutes of the 2-hour finale that he had gone from one of my most respected candidate to the least respected. Half way into the episode, Karen already suspected that Trump will hire both, especially when he foreshadowed it when they chose different projects. So when Trump seeked Randal's opinion on Rebecca's hiring, I thought "here we go". Based on his past relationship with Rebecca, I fully expected the response to be, "You know, Mr. Trump, I've worked with Rebecca and she's smart and capable. She will be a great asset to your organization. I highly recommend her." As you know, the episode unfolded with Randal denying Rebecca's employment by requesting to be the sole Apprentice, and Trump respected his wishes. Unbelievable. I understand that Randal wants tonight to be his night, but he has already been declared the winner! It's as if Randal grew horns and fangs and transformed into an evil grinch overnight! I had no choice but to roll my eyes and sigh in disgust.

Who are you? Where's Randal and what did you do with him?!?

New Rodent

Sun, 20 Nov 2005, 23:44:33 PST

After this whole rodent-catching and disposing situation, we were left with a fish tank, a mouse wheel, two food dishes, and a bunch of bedding and mouse food. I suppose it also left us with a rearranged pantry, a disinfected fireplace, and the idea of owning a pet. Finally we caved in and paid another visit to PetCo.

He's a Siberian Dwarf Hamster. He's white, has a small ear, red eyes, and a bunny-esque tail. We have yet to name him, but he's a handful already. When the expert store manager, who claimed to be the proud owner of several hamster privately, made an attempt to extract the mouse from its cage, he leap out of his cage and dropped 5 feet onto the floor. Ouch! The word "exchange" crossed my mind, but somehow we've already made the connection with him in the long two minutes we spent with him. Thankfully there are no noticeable impairment from that fiasco, as he is gleefully racing in the mouse wheel next to me heading toward some imaginative destination.

Welcome the new member of the family. This time, I believe he is here to stay.

Returned for Refund

Sat, 19 Nov 2005, 16:32:10 PST

After identifying the mouse as a "deer mouse", we've looked into the perils of such a wild rodent, and in the end, we decided to ban its presence from the premises. I carefully transported it to a grocery bag, went to an undisclosed location (and no it's not my neighbor's backyard), wished it a good life and dropped it off. It immediately rushed to the nearest blackberry bush and disappeared.

Now it's time for some cleanup...

Night Stalker

Fri, 18 Nov 2005, 22:06:07 PST

It all started one day while Karen was blissfully preparing dinner when suddenly... she opened the pantry and uncovered chewed peanuts and broken candy wrappers ll over the place! Certainly a strange phenomenon.

Then one night when Karen walked downstairs to get a drink, and she heard some noises in the pantry. Immediately I ran downstairs to the rescue by surrounding the perimeter with cushions and proceeded to remove the items from the pantry, one by one. Suddenly, the mouse jumped out and I let out a scream that remains a permanent part of the Karen's blackmail arsenal. The mouse hid in the corner as I contemplated a course of action. At one point, Karen handed me the electrocuting fly zapper, but when she noticed how "cute" it was, she became protective. After some futile attempts at grabbing the mouse, it lept over some feeble obstacles and darted into the fireplace. We had found the breach in our perimeter.

So Karen and I visited our local Home Depot and tour the pest removal section. We quickly dismissed rat poison as we only buy organic products. We also dismissed the glue paper as the adhesion would cause the mouse to be permanently bonded--a cruel arrangement. The traditional mouse trap would snap its head in half, leaving a disturbing sight. Finally, we settled on the perfect tool: the Victor Live-Catch Mouse Trap.

Just place cheese or peanut butter in the opening, and when the mouse enteres the trap, the lid closes...

We placed some sliced, hardened Jack cheese in the trap and placed two traps head to head next to the fireplace. After a few mouse dreams and nightmares, Karen and I woke in the morning and anxiously checked the trap. Nothing.

So we switched to plan B. Karen had bought peanut butter from Trader Joe's (no trans-fat!) which smelled really good, so we spread some on a peanut and used it as bait instead. After some more mouse dreams and tossing and turning, we woke up in the morning, ran downstairs and found that one of the lid was closed! However, a quick inspected revealed nothing inside. In fact, even the peanut-butter covered peanut was gone! So we tried again, with a smaller peanut.

Nothing happened on the first day, but on the second day, Karen noticed that one of the traps was rotated 90 degrees! I picked up the trap and took a quick peek--yup, mouse tail. Karen excitedly headed to PetCo to pick up a cage, and we proceeded to put the mouse inside the cage.

Except... the mouse was so small it squeezed between the bars, jumped out, and squeezed under the washer/dryer. Finally I moved the washer and grabbed the mouse and placed it in a box. Karen returned to PetCo and bought a fish tank, mouse food, pine bedding & litter, exercise wheel, and the works, which is the new place of residence for this little guy.

Welcome our new member of the family!

Lost Fish

Sat, 15 Oct 2005, 16:10:43 PST

Last Saturday, we undertook an expedition on the corn maze in Snohomish, and we returned with an Oscar-nominee.

Another Wedding

Sat, 20 Aug 2005, 16:30:24 PST

I took a little break from blogging to take a little breather, but I think it's time to resume the action.

Today I attended a very unique wedding. During the part where the pastor asked, "If anyone has any objections, let him speak now or forever hold their peace", the uncle raised his hand. So the uncle gave a speech about being troubled for not meeting the wife earlier than a day before the wedding, and proceeded to read a letter in the form of Chinese poetry from the father in China, saying (translated to English by yours truly):

The rain is coming
Mother is remarrying
It's all destiny
Let him go

Then the uncle said that despite the despair, he has to give his blessing--after all, the groom is still family and he made the decision.

After his speech came the rebuttal from the groom. He thanked the family and bowed, then also produced a letter from the father giving him support for the wedding. The scene was so dramatic it seemed like a Chinese drama unfolded before our eyes. The tension in the audience was high, as no one has seen this before, and there were tears in the audience both sympathetic and awestruck.

I commented to a pastor afterwards, "Bet you haven't seen this before!" and he replied, "Sure, but you know what? This is the best wedding I've been to. It really demonstrates true love between two people." I suppose I can only agree. It's when you persevere in these situations that you truly see the love and commitment you have toward one another.

For these two newly weds, I wish them the best in their journey of life together.

Dedication

Sun, 07 Aug 2005, 22:10:34 PST

Just to show how much Karen insists on enjoying the summer, here's a little peak at her new-found habits from this stealth shot...

In case you missed it on the thermometer, let me give you a 1:1 crop of the interesting portion...

Anyone question her dedication of enjoying every summer's day?

(btw, as good as I may be at digital manipulation, I certify the authenticity of this picture)

White Pine No More

Fri, 05 Aug 2005, 16:30:37 PST

This was our dying white pine...

We have waited an entire year for it to recover, but it kept deteriorating. With the right side completely dead, during days of storm we kept cringing in our seats hoping it wouldn't come tumbling down on the house. Finally, we decided we had enough excitement and decided to go the route of euthanasia...

It hurt to do this, but it had to be done... and now we were left with a bunch of pellets...

While it opened up a lot of space in the yard, it also exposed our house to more sun. We'll need to plant some tall-growing trees near the fence... just what we need, more yard work!

2 Year Anniversary!

Wed, 03 Aug 2005, 00:44:41 PST

Can't believe Karen and I have been married for two years! Instead of shelling out major dough for some restaurant, we decided to dine at the local Karen Lee House of Tea...

The fine dining began with a mango salad dish...

then continued with a mushroom soup...

and then the Lobster with piña colada...

After the dining at this fine restaurant with a world-class chef, we decided to take a little Vista tour (not to be confused with Windows) at the place where we held our banquet 2 years ago, the Edgewater Hotel.

Then after a leisurely walk, we returned to the Karen Lee House of Tea for some dessert...

It's easy to take for granted someone who's with you all the time, but I truly appreciate sharing my life with Karen the past two wonderful years.

Eva's Wedding

Tue, 02 Aug 2005, 00:33:34 PST

On Saturday, Karen and I attended Jerry & Eva's wedding. It was in a cozy, wooden Lutheran church with a very Lutheran pastor, who interestingly could speak Mandarin. You can see him in the picture denoted by the ... head.

Afterwards, we headed over to the reception. It was funny for Karen to have been enlisted to bring salad before we even RSVP'ed, but whatever.

Call me a carnivore if you will, but apparently Karen's salad was the only item I didn't try that night. The roast beef was good, though... it was prepared by someone whom I haven't seen for a decade!

The last time I recall seeing the Chef was back in 1995 when I attended College Fellowship at ECC. All I remembered was heading to his Greenlake residence with a few other CFers after jogging where he, a student of the culinary arts, gleefully produced cooking oil by placing huge pieces of lard on the frying pan. That was my only memory of him.

Apparently his memory was better than that as he called me by name on the way to the wedding on Saturday!

Anyway, my sitting around while waiting for Karen didn't sit well with the other helpers, so I was enlisted to help fold the napkins around the utensils. By the end, I was an expert napkin folder who outshined all the others--a rare gift.

In the meantime, Karen was busy setting up the wedding cake...

By now you're probably thinking that this is a very DIY wedding, and you'd be right. I suppose every wedding has its own character.

Finally we were able to sit down and relax.

After dinner, the bride and groom toasted each table...

When they came to our table, all the helpers were gone busy doing stuff, except for me. I would have helped, but I wasn't feeling well because... let's just say that I forgot Lactaid that morning with my cereal. The helpers never came back and I never got to toast the bride and groom! Wats up wit dat?!

Still, I wish Jerry & Eva the best on their new marriage.

Picture Of The Week

Sat, 30 Jul 2005, 23:46:14 PST

I found this picture on MSNBC...

All I can say is... ouch!

Enjoy the sun!

Thu, 28 Jul 2005, 01:14:33 PST

With Seattle raining about 11 out of 12 months of the year, we need to embrace the sunlight whenever it can be detected. Now that Karen and I have finished the fence and the shed, we moved on to our next project--the picnic table!

There was a story in purchasing the umbrella. During our first visit to Pottery Barn, the lady mentioned, "if you see it for lower in the catalog, we would honor that price", but when I called in to make the actual purchase, a different lady answered and insisted they never do this and that their retail price includes shipping, which is why it's more expensive! I waited until the next day to make the plead in person, but the original lady wasn't there. I ended up asking a guy, but his attitude was "that's our price, take it or leave it". Finally I gave up and went to the register. I made a puppy face and asked, "Can you just give it to me for the catalog price?" She said, "I'm not supposed to do this, but... okay!"

So the moral of the story is... when all else fails, utilize the puppy face.

Another Project Done!

Wed, 27 Jul 2005, 00:58:00 PST

After finishing the fence, Karen and I moved on to other projects, one of which is the extra-large honey bucket for emergency use from the yard! Okay, maybe not. It's a storage solution for all the yard equipment. Because this area of the land was sloped, the most difficult part Karen and I had to do was leveling it. Hopefully we won't wake up one day and see the shed at the bottom of the slope.

Now that it freed up the extra space in the garage, Karen's real motivation for urging the shed's completion was to resume my muscle-building routines on the bench. Anyone up for some reps?

Silly Night

Mon, 25 Jul 2005, 21:49:32 PST

Karen and I dined at Jeem last night, and when it came time to pay, I pulled out the wallet and realized that my credit card was missing from its usual slot! A slight flashback brought me to Red Robin, the last place I touched my wallet for lunch after church, so that must have been where it was...

We hurriedly paid with Karen's credit card and drove over to Red Robin across the street. The manager performed the security check by glacing at my ID and disappeared through the backdoor. When he returned, his hands were empty and declared the bad news--card not found! How could it be?!

"Who was your server?" he asked.

"I don't remember. I may have to report this card stolen, so can you check one last time?" I answered.

The manager strolled down the aisle and disappeared again. Suddenly a revelation hit me--I may indeed have the receipt in my wallet. I promptly opened it up and sitting in the bit fat slot was the receipt with the server name! Then I checked in the other compartment, and there it was, the credit card! To spare the manager the agony of realizing that the last 15 minutes was an exercise in futility, I thanked him and mentioned I'd look for it and left. When we got back to my car, Karen asked, "Where's your jacket?"

So back to Jeem we went...

Magic Bean II -- Delayed

Sun, 24 Jul 2005, 21:54:31 PST

For those of you who have religiously followed the chapter on the Magic Bean with writing, I went to extra length to ensure a more interesting type of plant--the Dancing Flower! And no, it's not the battery-operated version that wiggles when its hidden condenser microphone detects vocal signals. This is a living, growing plant that does the John Travolta or Michael Jackson at the cue of music!

Unfortunately, the delivery didn't make it past customs, maybe because they were deemed as agricultural hazard. Either that or the customs officers are now growing the botanical entertainment in their kitchen. In any case, I regret that we will need to postpone this blogging event until further notice.

Demo

Thu, 21 Jul 2005, 19:27:02 PST

My manager asked me give a demo of what I work on today to about a hundred people. I thought I had everything taken care of, so I waited until 11pm last night to prepare. When I tried connecting the device, it failed! Took me until 3am to sort it out! Note to self: procrastination=bad.

In the end, the demo went smoothly. Couldn't say the same about the other demos, though. One had problems getting the laptop connected, and the other continually crashed... It helps to lift up even the small things to God.

Fence Finished!

Wed, 20 Jul 2005, 00:00:52 PST

Karen and I finally finished the last piece of our fence, the gate! Now our lawn is no longer the public access shortcut for kids, and curious pedestrians can no longer peek in to observe our featureless yard. Unfortunately it also prevents the cute bunny rabbit from entering and feeding on the dandelions, and it offers little protection against the curious black kitty who uses our yard as a big litter box.

Not that it was all easy. While we were trying to install the gate, I had to hold fifty different items with my hands, feet, neck, etc. At one point I dropped the drill, and when I grabbed it, it got tangled on my shirt and started drilling!

Pushing it away only made it go faster because I was holding on to the handle, where the accelerate button happened to reside. Somehow by the miracle of God I ended up with only minor scrapes, which appears as a tiny little red dot in the lower-left hand corner of the rip in the picture. Consider it a battle scar to show for this valiant fence-building effort!

Special thanks to Allan and Wes for helping with setting the posts, and Erick for pulling out a huge boulder and hacking away at a root that just wouldn't go away.

Let's just hope it holds together...

Lavender Festival!

Sun, 17 Jul 2005, 16:19:42 PST

Every year people attend the Tulip Festival. This year, olivetheotherreindeer suggested we try something different, such as going to the Lavender Festival at Sequim, which lasts only one weekend!

To get to Sequim, we had to take the ferry across the Puget Sound.

When I was about to take pictures of the guys, the announcement came for people to return to their vehicles. Bummer!

The first farm we went to was called Purple Haze...

Erick and Jeffrey started by trying out some local delicacy, like the Lavender Virgin Margarita...

Jeffrey immediately gave it the thumbs down. There was also the lavender white chocolate ice cream, which according to Carol, just tasted like regular white chocolate ice cream.

That's when we started taking pictures...

And more pictures...

We paid $10 for unlimited access to 7 different farms, with free shuttling service provided from farm to farm. The central hub is at downtown Sequim, so we took the bus to get there. It was a squeeze...

I was sandwiched so badly I had a hard time even getting my camera out, but as you can see from the picture, some of us were just comfortably sitting on the seats while the rest of us suffered.

We arrived at the hub where it resembles a fair with booths and long lines all over the place. Many of us opted for the Gyro for lunch...

After lunch, Erick found this incredibly large farm with called Lost Mountain, which was hyped with "100 different species of Lavender!!!" So to Lost Mountain we went. We took the bus again, and this time we squeezed two rows between the aisles! After the bus made its first stop, we were able to sit down, but not before our hands turned tomato red...

Picture doesn't do justice to the colors of our hands. Anyway, we arrived at Lost Mountain...

So we did find a hundred species of Lavender, but apparently there was only one of each, contained in a small patch of land! We were conned. Nevertheless, we made the most out of the place. One interesting feature was a water mill running purple water...

It's hard to see the purple water, but I assure you it was purple. Karen also decided to bring out her favorite cartoon character to join the fun...

Also some of us decided to collect their own lavender...

I have no idea what olivethereindeer was cutting there...

By the time we were ready to go, we had to wait in line for the bus again. Some people's sunburns were starting to become apparent as a strange mark surfaced on my back...

It wasn't really a burn, but I still have this mark today. Maybe it's from the camera strap?

Turned out we weren't able to get onto the next two buses because they were both full, so we ended up waiting for an hour! Next time, we should just drive instead of taking the shuttle... While most of us were just standing around, some of us managed to make the time productive.

Finally we were able to squeeze on the bus and return to our parking lot. That's when we decided to check out at the beach with the lighthouse. On the way, Erick took a wrong turn somewhere and we ended up getting a nice view of...

A deer. He stared at us as we made a U turn in someone's back yard.

When we arrived at the beach, there was a lighthouse in view, but it was really small. Even with my super duper 300x zoom lense, I was still only able to offer you this picture with minimal details...

Unfortunately to reach the lighthouse required a 5.5 mile hike, each way! That's like circling Green Lake four times! We decided to pass and just enjoy the beach...

Erick was really into playing chicken fight on a log...

After that, a shark appeared in the water...

Okay, so there was no shark, but we did take a funny picture!

Then it was time to go home. We first dropped by Taco Time for some to-go dinner, and then we got held up waiting for the draw bridge. The traffic literally stopped for 10 minutes. While waiting, Jeffrey had an emergency crisis and needed a place to... download some software.

Unfortunately he couldn't find an outlet. Later Johnny, Angela, Jeffrey and Grace stopped at an alternate location while the rest of us headed over to the Ferry. We thought they didn't make it to the 9:20 ferry because they were the fifth car in line for the next ferry, but they managed to squeeze in. Close call!

Anyway, then we took the ferry ride home...

That's it, folks, our Lavender Festival trip! It was fun, but we most likely won't be going another Lavender trip for a long time.

Korean Soap: Full House

Thu, 14 Jul 2005, 00:09:08 PST

Karen recently dragged me into watching a Korean drama called "Full House", which we finished yesterday. It's actually a cute Romantic drama about a Movie Star and a girl who got into a contractual marriage due to circumstances. While there were 16 episodes, at least it's not like some of the Taiwanese or Hong Kong series that drag on to 40+ episodes. Once we started watching, it was hard to stop because of all the cliff hangers connecting the episodes.

The actress in this drama is Song Hye Gyo. As you may have remembered from the Miss Universe pagent blog, I like pointing out people who look like others. In this case, it's Yuki, a singer from Taiwan who sang "Monster". Karen and I had a heated discussion about whether they really look alike, but let us take a look...

Song Hye Gyo

Yuki Hsu

Check out the eyebrows, the eyes, the mouth... The resemblance is staggering!

Funky Couch Replaced!

Wed, 13 Jul 2005, 01:10:44 PST

Back in January, we purchased a sectional from Macy's to take advantage of their tax-free sale, but what we got more than we bargained for. When the couch was delivered, this was what we got:

As you can see, we got the aesthetically displeasing mutant sectional. After many angry phone calls to the salesperson, a $35 gift card, and a slight (6 month) delay, the real parts were finally delivered!

Now that's more like it!

Penguin Prankster

Mon, 11 Jul 2005, 17:04:34 PST

Thought this was pretty funny...

What? Me Nerd?

Sun, 10 Jul 2005, 00:06:03 PST

Here to prove to you once and for all that I'm... only slightly nerdy.

Hey, at least I didn't score 86%!!! I think maybe Karen may have something to do with lowering that score, particularly the questions like dirty laundry in the bedroom...

The Popcorn Chicken Contest

Sat, 09 Jul 2005, 00:23:44 PST

We had no snacks at fellowship tonight, so afterwards many of us headed over to Tapioca Express. A while back, we had jokingly mentioned that we would get a 5-star popcorn chicken and go around until someone drops out, and whoever drops out would need to pay for it. Well, today we got one rated at 7-star (yes, seven out of five stars--that's no typo) and passed it around. The pieces were glowing red from the thick coat of highly potent chili powder, and the mere fragrance of the spice was enough to invoke some frowns.

We each took one piece per round. Jeff and his wife Christine went out in the first round. Maria went out in the third round, and Grace and Chia-Wen went out in the fourth and final round. Jun, Jeffrey, Ben, Eddy, Karen and myself made it to the very end, when we ran out of pieces. Hence the six of us shall join the Happyfish 7-Star Club as ones who endured all the way!

The big winner who shall enter the Hall of Fame was Ben, though, because instead of eating a piece of chicken for his final piece, he had a piece of jalapeno!

Turn Off The TV!

Fri, 08 Jul 2005, 00:00:30 PST

How much TV do you watch? Karen and I watched... just a few programs in the past.. Karen had her 7th Heaven, Full House, Everyday Italian, Trading Spaces, While You Were Out, Clean Sweep, Makeover Story, Ambush Makeover, McGyver, Fear Factor, Perfect Proposal, and more that have escaped my mind at this moment. Now those were just her programs. Together we also watched Smallville, American Idol, The Apprentice, America's Next Top Model, and Project Greenlight. Yes, that's quite a bit of programs thanks to TiVo!

After reflecting on a sermon by Elton about cutting out the busyness in our lives, we conducted an experiment by suppressing our carnal desires of watching TV for an entire week! Yes, I literally yanked all the RCA cables and the power cable from the rear of the TV!

Every night, we sat at the dinette glaring at each other during dinner, which I suppose is a positive thing. Then from the extra few hours we gained back each day, we've been going out to the mall, the bookstore, or the coffee shop! Wow... what a difference!

A week later, we missed TV, so we reverted back to old form. We do watch no more than half an hour of TV a day now, but I suppose the lack of good prime time television and the scarcity of new Full House episodes may have something to do with it. However, since we have joined Netflix, the time simply shifted from TV to movies. Oh well, we're bound to run out of movies at some point, right?

By the way, it turns out that I was the only one without TV that week. I later discovered that Karen had cunningly reconnected the TV while I was at work! And I thought disconnecting all cables from the TV provided a large enough hurdle! Looks like next time, I'll need to hide the cables too.

Perks at Work

Thu, 07 Jul 2005, 00:49:12 PST

Recently I found a couple of unexpected presents in my mailbox at work, one of which was a free $15 Starbucks Card! Why? I have no idea... something about community participation, but whatever. Karen conveniently relieved me of my Starbucks Card.

Then another day I was pleasantly surprised with the other gift in the mailbox--1 month free netflix subscription! So I signed up. With the exception of the one time my mailman completely missed the little red flag on the side of the mailbox and proceeded to stack the incoming mail on top of it, things are going smoothly. With 2 weeks introductory offer plus 1 month from the gift card, that's about 6 weeks of nonstop DVD action!

Without these subsidizing incentives, Blockbuster is a better deal. If I had a sudden urge to watch Supergirl at 11:40pm, a quick visit to the local store will suffice. With Netflix, however, I would need to take one of my DVDs, put it in the envelope, drop it in my mailbox, go online, log in, add it to the queue, move it up in the queue, and twirl my fingers for the next 5 days as I patiently wait for it to come in the mail. Finally, I may end up getting Screwball instead of Supergirl if they ran out of the title! Factoring in the fact that USPS slacks off on Sundays, that's quite a bit of down time.

Still, can't beat free DVDs even if it takes a while to get here.

Which American City Fits Me?

Wed, 06 Jul 2005, 00:10:50 PST

Here were my results...

American Cities That Best Fit You:

70% Austin

65% Atlanta

65% Honolulu

65% Las Vegas

65% Miami

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Oh no! Having a large majority of Happyfishers being Texas is one thing, but now the test claimed I belong in Texas! While the prospect of owning a 1,000 acre yard is nice from a real estate perspective, it may take a slightly more excessive amount of time to mow that lawn or weed the field, and the closest neighbor may be 30 minutes away! It's uncertain whether I'm cut out for a life of raising cows for a living while wearing cowboy hats and swinging a lasso! The only lasso I want to see is in Photoshop. Nooooooooooo!

Bellevue Park Fireworks

Tue, 05 Jul 2005, 00:46:30 PST

This year we decided to take it easy and check out the fireworks at Bellevue Park. Thanks to Angela and Johnny, we got a chance to sit behind the fountain with the reflections.

The fireworks was choreographed to the music played by the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra. It started out fairly nicely...

You can see the reflection in this picture...

And then there were more fireworks...

From time to time, it became intense...

Other times, it was simpler...

But color-coordinated for the most part...

There were even ones that look like dandelions in a picture...

Unfortunately, the fireworks experience was tainted by the obscuring smoke part of the time:

And for the finale, blasts after blasts of fireworks of different color schemes dazzled the canvas of the sky as the symphonic orchestra built up the tension. The blasts continued as the tension built, and built, and finally the music approaches the big final three notes as the rest of the fireworks were fired at twice the rate...

... that would have been nice. Unfortunately, that wasn't the way the finale went. Actually, what finale? The fireworks stopped as suddenly as the flies drop when it hits my newly acquired fly zapper. As the orchestra played on, there were one or two additional uninspiring shots, and then it just ended. That's it. Thank you very much good bye. Very anticlimatic. If this were Regal Cinemas I would have gotten my money back!

Sure, this was no Gasworks, but there was a lot less waiting required to get decent seating. Also, because the lawn is level, it was much easier to play games while waiting. I would recommend it as an alternate park for the years when you don't feel like squeezing into Gasworks.

Nothing in Seattle beats Gasworks, though.

July 4th Sale at Seattle Premier Outlets?

Mon, 04 Jul 2005, 01:56:18 PST

Initially Karen and I were planning to play some tennis on this gorgeous afternoon, but over lunch we heard about the super-duper July 4th deal at the Seattle Premier Outlets. Figuring we have the rest of summer to play tennis but only one July 4th weekend sale, the balance tipped on the outlet side.

This mall was big, with a very good selection for outlet mall. Take that comment for what it's worth, though, because this is coming from someone who treats shopping at malls like a stealth mission. You start with a target, you move in, acquire the target, and get out as fast as possible. (Naturally, Karen is not very fond of this shopping behavior).

As for the July 4th sale, almost everything had a "sale" tag on it, so it wasn't clear what was really for July 4th. Also, at the entrance of Nautica, some lady handed us a coupon:

Not that we planned to spend $175 on clothes in one store, but we took a quick peek anyway. Finding nothing of value, I tried to hand the coupon back to the lady, but she said, "Oh that's okay, I don't need it". Before I got a chance to say, "Well, I don't want it either!" she continued, "It's good until the rest of the year."

So there you have it. The July 4th sale is a sham, and the expiration dates are there to get you to buy compulsively. That said, there are still deals to be had, but just like any mall, you still have to work to find them. Just don't buy anything you're not sure of, because it's a long way to the return line!

Maximizing Laptop Battery Life

Sun, 03 Jul 2005, 01:19:42 PST

Have you ever wondered why the battery life seems shorter and shorter? Karen is always envious of my laptop habits because her 5 minute battery life can't touch the 5 hours from mine. Heck, she might as well be moving a desktop around if she's always plugging in! I thought the problem might have been constant plugging in, so I began cycling my batteries by fully charging it and then running it almost all the way and fully charging it again. I was so wrong.

Most laptop batteries use Lithium Ion (Li-Ion), and the best thing to do is to discharge partially, and charge partially. Frequent full discharges are bad for the battery, and the effects are permanent. So if you've loved walking to the kitchen with your pajamas and surfing the web while you snack away, you may inadvertently be wearing out your battery! (reference for the skeptics: http://www.batteryuniversity.com)

So how do you check if your battery is worn out from abuse? Well, I found this nifty tool called Centrino Hardware Control that can tell you...

As you can see, after only owning my laptop for a few months, my battery wear level is already at 4%, but that's not as bad as my coworker who bought his laptop later and is already at 15%! He's also a cycler, and by that I don't mean he joins Johnny on his biking expeditions. By the way, it is okay to cycle your batteries once a month to reset the memory electronics in the battery, but that's about it. Now you know how to maximize your laptop battery life!

While we're on the subject, I have a quick tip for you geeks out there. You can use the same tool to lower the voltage of your CPU. Why? To lower the temperature and increase battery life. I've lowered mine from 0.9 to 0.7 volts at 600 MHz, and it runs much quieter and cooler and longer. Except for the occasional smoke and burnt rubber smell, everything is good! Okay, I'm kidding there, but you do risk crashing your system if the voltage is too low, so tweak it at the lowest stable voltage and you're golden! If you're not a geek and would like to live on the edge, I recommend you make friends with some geeks and utilize the free support that comes along with it.

Happyfish @ Home

Sat, 02 Jul 2005, 03:19:00 PST

We had our first Bible Study tonight, and one thing we didn't lack tonight was dessert. Between Karen's Italian fruit dessert and Grace's Fritos with Chili, we had plenty to spare, but all attention were on Olivia's Japanese feline cake imports.

A closer inspection reveals Japanese-quality detailing work, even on cakes...

Afterwards, some of us stayed for a game of Mexican Train. In hindsight, perhaps it wasn't the shortest game to play. Grace whipped our butts pretty badly in the first couple rounds, but in the end Olivia pulled ahead, which was an amazing feat considering she was somewhat dazed from the effects of jet lag. I was dead last until Jimmy began racking up points by collecting the wrong pieces toward the end of each round. But hey, as we learned in Bible Study today, the last shall be first and the first shall be last, right?

That brings us to now, which is about 3:15 am, way past my bedtime and right around when Jimmy typically brushes his teeth. I should just stop now. Stop!

Bunnies, Bunnies, and More Bunnies

Fri, 01 Jul 2005, 00:23:03 PST

Okay, after hearing about the bunnies that flooded Greeklake, Karen and I decided to pay our tribute last weekend. There weren't as many as Grace and Carol saw, perhaps they were taking an early July 4th vacation, but we managed to catch the few lazy ones that remained...

It was early in the morning, so a bunny did the morning cleanup, which was slightly faster than the 40 minutes I usually take in the morning...

Because the weather was nice, the squirrel joined the Fellowship of the Fuzzballs.

Every story has a villian, and on this day, a man who wanted to lay at the field wasn't generous enough to share the field with these poor, innocent rabbits. He began chasing them away by flinging his jacket on the grass over and over again. The rabbits ran...

... and went hiding. Unfortunately some have not truly learned the art of stealth...

After a brief moment, the man settled at a corner of the field, so the rabbits developed enough courage to come crawling back. One rabbit got so much courage that he was "close and personal" to me, void of any fear of human contact. "What do you want, a glamour shot?!" So I took one...

Unfortunately I don't have his email address, so I can't send it to him. Maybe he can check find my xanga blog. Speaking of blogs, I better stop here before people accuse me of taking a page out of Grace's blog.

Theological Worldview?

Wed, 29 Jun 2005, 23:28:39 PST

I noticed the little survey on theological worldview on Angela's blog, so I decided to give it a try. Here were is my result:

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

93%

Fundamentalist

61%

Charismatic/Pentecostal

54%

Reformed Evangelical

50%

Neo orthodox

46%

Emergent/Postmodern

46%

Modern Liberal

36%

Classical Liberal

25%

Roman Catholic

18%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

I don't know who John Wesley is or what he did, but if he wants to believe what I believe, then hey, more power to him!

Kayaking

Mon, 27 Jun 2005, 23:38:22 PST

I had planned to save this for another day this week as I've bombed this blog with too many oversized entries lately, but unfortunately neither Carol nor Jun could hold their cool about withholding kayaking blogs. I didn't want to be old news, so here we go.

Over the weekend, Karen and I went kayaking, and even though we were only a tiny, little bit late (40 minutes), our beloved friends (David, Carol, Eddie, Jun, Allen) had forsaken us. We had snubbed water sports in the past, as the inability of Karen keeping her head above water for more than 0.5 seconds may have had something to do with it. With the shabby guarantee of the safety vest on her, we decided to take a plunge anyway. First we headed toward Gas Works...

Then we saw a group of ducks and headed straight for it...

Unfortunately with Karen working against me, we had no chance of catching up.

Then we saw our beloved friends paddling over in our direction. Strangely enough, the closer they got, the blonder their hair seemed. Wait a minute! Those are no friends... counterfeits! I did receive a call from David, who mentioned they were at the UW draw bridge, but somehow I must have brought the wrong cognitive map with me because I thought the Ballard bridge was the draw bridge. We turned around. Then about 15 minutes later I realized my folly and turned around again. What a waste of energy!

By the time we found our friends, they were heading back already. Because I wanted to show Karen the *real* UW draw bridge (not Ballard), we painstakingly parted with our friends and continued our path toward UW.

We took a slight detour toward the beautiful water lillies...

Then we headed toward the draw bridge...

That's when I realized a real map was strapped about 4 inches from my face on top of the kayak. Sheesh. Rubbing it in my face. We noticed a path toward the right and headed under a few bridges. It was a cinematic experience to behold...

Padding out from under the 520 bridge was another gorgeous sight...

That's when the low battery light on my camera came on. A practical tip for the wise: charge your batteries. At this point I received another call from David, and they have already paid and ready to leave. When we disclosed our location of Huskie Stadium, I slightly underestimated our distance "Give me 20 minutes, we'll be back. No problem!"

David answered, "No way! You're about 40 minutes away!"

To prove I was no slouch, I kicked into overdrive, supercharged my neglected biceps and triceps, and blazed down the path as the kayak parted the water. This feat lasted a whole...oh, 30 seconds before I decided to take a break. That's also when Karen politely pointed out her need for her break as well--a bathroom break. Great. Looked like it was going to be a *really* long trip back.

On the way back, the wind was against us, and at times it seemed like it was winning the tug-a-war as the kayak stood still. After an hour we managed to make it back, but the return trip instilled a soreness in my biceps, triceps, and any other ceps you can think of. It has yet to wear off as of this day.

It was nice being out on a kayak though. Maybe next time, our "friends" will wait for us!!

Huey's Wedding

Mon, 27 Jun 2005, 01:49:49 PST

First a word of wisdom from the Proverbs of James (this has nothing to do with the wedding by the way):

What I did today I shall blog later.
What I did yesterday I shall blog now.
What you call procrastination I call a strategic delay.

Let's rewind to June 11th, 2004... oops, I mean 2005. It was Huey and Debbie's wedding day and at their request, I became one of their photographers. My scope was limited to taking pictures during reception when they go around the tables. Cutting of the cake and everything else will be covered by the main photographer.

A couple weeks later, Huey amended that plan to include pictures of everyone who attended the wedding, but not necessarily mug shots. Uh huh... as if I can keep track of anyone, seeing that I remembering names poses quite a challenge already. I ended up just asking people for their mug shot as they come in anyway. Despite my systematic approach in blockading the door with the effectiveness of a police line, I still noticed some undercover ninjas managing to sneak behind me. Anyway, here's one of the mug shots:

Then the wedding party decended down the stairs. I noticed Pastor Sam checking his tie in the mirror, and I instinctively held up my camera and snapped. In trying to capture the moment, I ended up with camera settings as far off as the moon is to the sun, so I ended up with:

Thankfully I shot in RAW, so I was able to salvage the picture with a little digital magic:

Amazed? So was I.

Anyway, then came the ceremony. The backlit background and the vicinity of the first row of seats offered no room for photographs without also capturing some audience member's mesmerizing widow's peak. I didn't want to be a copycat and duplicate the main photographer's work, so I decided to crawl bootcamp style under the bar and to the left side, where I was able to capture this shot:

Then as I squatted in the front row, someone must have decided to head to the john because I saw a basket sitting on the floor with no one around. I thought it would be neat to take a picture of this:

After the ceremony and at the announcement of food, the vultures headed upstairs for this:

Hmm, I'm salivating even looking at that picture. Anyway, while waiting we decided to take some Happyfish pictures. We started with the all-girl pic, but there was a disturbance in the force...

After settling down, we were able to take some nice, classy group photos such as:

Then we headed down for the reception. That's when I realized the main photographer was taking off before the cake cutting! Oh oh, flashback to the nightmare of red-eyed monsters. Anyway, after taking over main photographer duties, I first went around the tables with Huey and Debbie. Of course, no reception is complete without some wacky games, like eat the ends of the noodle until the lips touch:

I have no idea what that dude in the middle is doing... practicing or catching his breath?

Afterwards came the cake cutting. Thankfully there were no red-eyed monsters, but we did get one big, hungry cake monster who gobbled the cake in one byte!

Then after some speeches and toasts, Debbie changed and it was time to make an exit. The guests formed two lines. This is great, I thought, because I can try experimenting with various shots and angles and see what happens. Yeah right. Before I finished my thought, Huey had already carried Debbie in his arms and darted toward me at 120 MPH! If he had gone any faster, his head would have speared straight into my lens! Thankfully I was able to pull off a couple of shots before Huey was literally 2 inches in front of me:

Then they were married and lived happily ever after. Hmm, where have we heard that before recently?

So, being a wedding photographer isn't as easy as it seems. It's fun, though, especially when you have the privilege of bossing people around by saying lines such as "Official Photographer Business! Ma'am, please step aside, thank you!" Then you just flash your badge of authority--the overweighted camera--and all is forgiven.

For more information regarding this topic, in the form of pictures, you can visit The Happyfish Picture Gallery.

Eventful Saturday

Sun, 26 Jun 2005, 00:37:54 PST

This morning Karen and I woke up super early to attend the free Rick Steve seminar on Italy. It was basically a sight-seeing slideshow, although she did offer some practical tips such as how to bypass the 2 hour lines at the Uffizi gallery. Basically you calling ahead and reserve the ticket, and then just wave at all the silly people waiting in the insane line and walk straight up to the will-call. There was quite a bit of good info in the seminar, although most of it can be found in Rick Steve's Europe Through The Backdoor. At the end, the man himself, who just returned from Italy, showed up and answered some questions.

After that we went to the Mac Store to buy Karen a new battery. Karen has a Powerbook, and its battery life is exactly 5 minutes. No more. No less. Yeah... a new battery is warranted. Unfortunately Apple won't sell them because it's an older model, and Mac Store is sold out! Okay, okay... internet here we come. Selection at the expense of instant graification...

Being a hot day, we dropped by Starbucks for a Frappuchino before heading over to the Happyfish BBQ. I didn't realize the Starbucks cups are smaller than ever! And I was complaining when they did their first downsizing. At this rate, soon the Tall will be the size of a shot glass!

Now, can anyone tell me where this is?

You may be tempted to say Hawaii, but it's actually Lincoln Park in West Seattle, where the Happyfish BBQ is! Anyway, I don't have a story today, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Let's start with Johnny handing Ben a piece of ... whatever.

Some people were definitely experiencing some football action...

While others were playing the bouncy rock game...

Amazingly, Karen actually bounced 4 times, as we can sort of witness in this next picture. Yes that's four, not three, although the last two are sort of compressed...

Of course, that's after 53,847 attempts, but it's still reason to celebrate.

Even Allen and Justine joined us, along with Madeline whose head was gripped like a basketball by Allen. First he cradles her like a football, and now basketball. What's next? I hope not soccer!

While we were at it, we took a few other shots...

And of course, Angela was nice enough to offer to take one for Karen and I...

Here's a picture I had a harder time getting cooperation for, but we managed to pull it off.

After that, we decided to try finding some interesting pictures take, including balancing on a log...

Or a rock...

Then we looked for ... creative shots...

So that's pretty much the Happyfish BBQ. Okay, so there were more people at the BBQ, but this is a blog, not a picture gallery! Keeping things interesting is the key, so only pictures that fit with my blog entry make it here. Okay, time to check for sunburns and go to sleep!

Bean Update

Sat, 25 Jun 2005, 01:34:41 PST

Looks like we need to conclude our bean journey. No, the bean hasn't withered and died yet from lack of nourishment, but it seemed to have assumed its final form.

As we can see, one side has:

And the other side has says:

Contrary to what I was told, the leaves didn't have the Chinese writing:

So at this point, it would seem like we have closed the chapter on the development of the Magic Bean. There's nothing magical about it... just some cheesy bean with patterns etched on.

Hey, to look on the bright side, I no longer need to worry about toxic containment of the genetic mutant. Time to return that Space Suit (by Mattel) back to Walmart!

The Blair Witch Project III?

Tue, 21 Jun 2005, 00:14:16 PST

Yesterday, a man got lost in the wilderness when he sensed something odd moving around him. He glanced around but noticed nothing but odd-looking trees. When he turned back to look for the path, a golem grabbed him and imprisoned him within a thick, coarse trunk.

After a few hours of struggling, he managed to free himself from the tree and lept from the tree. The noise from the perfect 10 landing disturbed the sleeping golem, whose thunderous thumping resonated across the forest as he rushed to the scene. Wittingly, the agile man climbed up another trunk and hid in the tree.

At an opportune moment when the golem looked away, the man lept from the tree and headed for the cliff, with the golem and his pounding steps rushing behind. Left without a choice, the man said a quick prayer and lept from the top of the cliff, landed in the river, and climbed his way up a boulder.

With the fearless golem also leaping from the top of the water fall, the man quickly fled from the boulder and looked for a place to hide.

He noticed a cliff nearby, so he used his bare hands to climb up the cliff, Mission Impossible style.

At this point, the golem had swum toward the boulder, climbed atop it, made a thunderous roar, and looked around for the man.

At that point, a golem huntress leaped out from nowhere and strangled the golem to death.

That's when the man noticed that at the end of the double-rainbow sat a mermaid on a stump!

He took her home and lived happily everafter. Okay, I think my story has officially gone downhills. Anyway, overall it was a fun trip to the Snoqualmie Falls.

THE END

Bean Update

Thu, 16 Jun 2005, 01:16:06 PST

The writing on the bean can now be clearly deciphered. I'll let you be the judge of what you see here...

Also there appears to be an image on the other side...

More to come...

Bean Head!

Wed, 15 Jun 2005, 00:16:18 PST

The bean seems to be growing quite a bit these couple of days!

The Emersion

Mon, 13 Jun 2005, 23:34:29 PST

There's activity! We're starting notice the protrusion of the Mutant Bean.

It's making its way out of the can, folks! The growth may be accelerated from this point forth, so I will update accordingly.

Really Busy Weekend

Mon, 13 Jun 2005, 14:56:23 PST

First of all, Happy Birthday to Karen this weekend! It was a very hectic weekend, with a wedding, an open house, two birthday celebrations (Happyfish and Family), church, movie, and all the stuff in between, there was barely time for a breather! I will get around to posting a few pictures on the blog soon.

Some of us watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith today, but before I get to that let's go to a tangent on theatres. First of all, the biggest screen at Crossroads is still my favorite theatre, even without stadium seating, because it has the best screen and sound combination next to Cinerama. In case you're wondering, you can always know which movie is on the big screen by glancing at the first entry on the ticket box movie list. Karen and I tried the new Lowes up in Alderwood Mall, which also a decent-sized screen, but it was lacking in the audio department. It didn't pass my stringent aural litmus test: when explosions occur, my heart needs to feel the pressure and my butt needs to shake. I felt neither, just loudness. The conclusion--the theatre is no good.

As for the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I enjoyed it. Sure, you either love or hate Brad Pitt, but who can dislike Angelina Jolie, who fits this Assassin/Tomb Raider type of role so perfectly. The storyline is rather unique, as two assassins married without knowing about each other's secrets. Again, I will refrain from disclosing spoilers, but suffice to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Karen and I give it a two thumbs up.

As for the Magic Bean update that has been preoccupying all of your minds lately, all I can say is that there is disturbance in the soil. Nothing worthy of a picture yet, but I have a hunch that something major may take place in the next few days. Mark my words.

Popcorns of Fire

Sat, 11 Jun 2005, 18:57:19 PST

The first time Karen and I went to Tapioca Express in Edmunds, we ordered a popcorn chicken at two-stars of spiciness. Immediately after consuming a few pieces, beads of chili swet glided down the sideburns. Last night, we returned to the store and witnessed Andrew making an order for four stars Popcorn Chicken! Immediately everyone started cracking up, thinking Andrew will feel the anesthetic numbness from the extra spice. Unfortunately the event never materialized. Apparently they've normalized the spiciness chart, and four stars now taste like two stars! They've wimped out! Now I'll never be able to experience the original five-star spicy Popcorn Chicken!

Discrepant Phantom?

Thu, 09 Jun 2005, 01:27:39 PST

So Karen had already watched the Phantom of the Opera DVD just last week, but she insisted that I watch it with her again. It was enjoyable, but one inconsistency really irked me. For the first half of the movie, the Phantom looked like this stud with slicked hair and perfect facials. At one point you could even see his entire flawless forehead. Then when the mask is ripped off, half of the forehead is riddled with scars filling an area inconcealable with some of the masks worn. Also, the eye suddenly resembles that of Tales from the Crypt! What the heck?!! Did they really think they could sneak this little detail pass the scrutinizing audience like myself? Imagine me wearing a tiny snoopy band-aid on my hand, and when it is peeled off, my entire hand and arm is covered in leprousy. Slight oversight?

That, along with the weak, untrained voice of the Phantom, are the only sore spots in the movie. Despite those issues, I would still recommend this movie, especially if you've seen the musical as it augments the storyline.

Maddy's One Month Celebration

Tue, 07 Jun 2005, 00:56:59 PST

Here are a few pictures from the one-month celebration of Madeline at the Kam's. First of all, here is Madeline, at one month old...

Okay, she was not in the most comfortable and relaxing position. Anyway, let's rewind to the beginning of the day. We started with lunch and funky behavior from Eddie...

Madeline wasn't impressed with such childish behavior...

Her expression turned to frowning as Jimmy approached. Maybe Jimmy looked like a thug...

Meanwhile, David was still keeping his priorities straight...

Here were the photojournalists at the scene capturing impromptu moments...

Here was Johnny getting in on a piece of the action...

That's when Aaron joined us. To appease him, some sacrifices had to be made...

Back to Madeline, who continued to be miffed by the thug...

Some went the extra yard to get the attention they desired...

Anyway, that's the glimpse of what happened on Saturday. Maybe I'll post more pictures if I have the time.

Magic Bean -- Revealed!

Mon, 06 Jun 2005, 00:57:06 PST

I'm sure you've been anticipating the can-opening ceremony. Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that we've cracked open the can, but the bad news is that we haven't seen the beans yet. The can was designed such that the entire top pops off (like cheese dips), and the bottom pops a hole (like soda pop) for drainage. Here is the mysterious interior:

If I didn't know better I'd think it was feeding material for Grace's Cookie. I expected some beans that we needed to plant, but turns out that the entire can functions as a pot assembly! The directions indicated that we're supposed to divulge the ecosystem like Noah's Flood, so we acted accordingly...

Once it started to drip from the bottom, we replaced the bottom lid on and voila! The magic bean biological clock has been started. We placed it on our island, and hopefully we won't stumble into a jungle kitchen tomorrow. I'll keep you posted on the development of this scientific experiment. If you think about it, Jack's mom was fortunately enough to have thrown the beans outside, or they may have ended up with a very large skylight installation.

On another note, I've posted my pictures of Erick and Phoebe's Wedding at the Happyfish picture gallery. Enjoy!

Magic Beans?

Sat, 04 Jun 2005, 00:39:14 PST

My brother-in-law just came from Taiwan and brought us an interesting gift...

Magic Bean? At first glance, it may look like a can of stuff that gives you gas, but further scrutinization reveals a different beast. Remember the story of Jack and the Bean Stalk? Let me see if I can...

Jack and mother were poor. Jack went to market to sell beef, a.k.a. cows, but Jack somehow had a craving for produce and exchanged for the magic beans instead. Went home. Mother had a cow and spilled the beans outside. Over night, the plant erected into the sky. Jack climbed into the clouds, found the castle, had some private time with Giant's wife, steals the hen that lays golden eggs and goes home. Later he went back up and stole two more bags of money. Then when he went back up again, the magic harp woke the giant, who chases Jack the Looter. Jack raced back down, chopped the beanstalk, killed the giant, and lived happily ever after.

Hmm, now that I think about it, doesn't it strike you as a peculiar bed-time story for kids? Poor giant!

Anyway, this package is supposed to yield some sort of plant that has Chinese writings on it! Weird, huh? It requires 7-14 days, 80% sun, 50% shade, 15-30 C. Oh, and it's got a label saying it's from some botanical research facility... scary. As much as I'd like to open it and reveal the secret interior, we will have to save that for another day.

Fact or Fiction?

Fri, 03 Jun 2005, 02:02:23 PST

My mom sent me some advertisements regarding health tips, and some of this seems to defy conventional wisdom. It describes "how doctors stay well while treating sick people all day", and the solution isn't washing hands. Many doctors take herbs but don't recommend it to their patients because it's unscientific. Maybe they've been taking the same weird assorted bark and dirt puree that I was made to drink as a kid by grandma! While the article is definitely advertisement, some of it is rather interesting. Check this out:

Cold and flu remedy that fights cancer: astragalus (huang qi). Take it with your meals!

Pain remedy that works faster than Tylenol/Aspirin: static electricity. Go to Home Depot and get some generic painter's mitt and a PVC pipe about an inch thick. If you have a pain in the butt, rub vigorously for one minute, apply to the heinies, and voila! Pain is gone.

How to reversing clogged arteries: vitamin C. Simple.

What's a heart attack trigger? People who interrupt conversations!! Oh oh...

How to eat fiber without resorting to eating stuff that taste like sawdust? Eat Avocados. Some other stuff includes raspberries (8g), blackberries (8g), apples (3g), mangoes (4g), acorn squash (6g), black beans (8g), artichokes (6g), sweet potatoes (5g). Darn, and I've been trying to get rid of the blackberries in my back yard!

Is Salmon is good for you? Not from the supermarket. Farmed salmon contains antibiotics and pesticides, and are fattier than wild cousins plus they have two-thirds less omega-3 fats! Get wild salmon from natural food markets.

How to tell if you have bad breath? Lick the inside of your wrist, wait 4 seconds, then smell. Typically Karen just stuffs a couple of mint pills in my mouth before doing any tests. Guilty until proven innocent.

There are numerous other tips like these throughout the ad. Now I've greatly simplified the text, so if you're interested in verifying the original manuscripts, you can download secrets1.pdf (6.6 MB), or you can check out the web site at http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com.

That said, I can't vouch the accuracy of this information. After all, I've always thought static electricity is good for zapping someone silly than to sooth the pain. If you know of whether any of these is fact or fiction, let me know!

Paging Service Memories

Thu, 02 Jun 2005, 00:44:38 PST

This morning during my leisurely drive to work, I heard them utter on the radio about a new technology regarding sensing anxious support calls and automatically forwarding them to the supervisor. Well, this reminded me of the days when I slaved away as a phone operator for National Dispatch Center back in the college days in San Diego.

It was a neat experience because all the cast of the show 90210 back then were on alphanumeric pagers, and so were many basketball players. All the operators knew that Michael Jordan's alias was "Chris Blackman". One time I actually received a call for Chris Blackman, and the caller left the message "Scottie won't be at the camp Monday. Call xxx-xxxx.". The only Scottie I knew on the Bulls was Scottie Pippen, but to this day I cannot verify the authenticity of this mystery character. His impression of me wasn't the best, as he kept calling me "Ma'am", perhaps because my voice didn't matured enough back then. After that call I lowered my voice to a much lower register to circumvent these type of misunderstandings.

I wasn't exactly the model operator either. One time when I received a call when someone nicely asked me to send the rhyming message "Where the **** is my truck?" I innocently sent it and immediately got a friendly visit from my supervisor, who wasn't exactly thrilled about... the word being on the banned list. How was I supposed to know? Did the supervisor expect me to go through the training manual the size of the yellow pages?!

But the most interesting message I've received was when this lady left the message, "Left my underwear under your bed. Get it before your wife comes home!"

Bellevue Square Going Downhills

Wed, 01 Jun 2005, 00:26:39 PST

I was at Bellevue Square the other day when I saw:

Borders, closing permanently on June 12th?! Putting on my Sherlock cap, I initiated an investigation on this matter by questioning one of the prime suspects, the cashier. After my extensive attempt at prying the cause of this operational shutdown, which lasted 3 seconds, she relented and disclosed the reason: "The rent is too high."

What's wrong with Bellevue Square? We've already witnessed one of the greatest fiasco in Mall history when Disney decided to close their doors, but apparently that wasn't enough. At this rate, the mall will become the Rodeo Drive of Seattle with expensive brands and unaffordable merchandice!

To look on the bright side, I suppose it will put a damper to Karen's compulsive, extravagant Bellevue Square shopping habits.

Miss Universe

Tue, 31 May 2005, 01:31:14 PST

Tonight we watched the Miss Universe pagent, skipping insignificant portions with fast forward and 30-second skip, courtesy of Tivo. Now typically the show is not particularly exciting, but each of us picked a contestant to root for starting with the final 15. Jeffrey chose Greece, Grace chose Dominican Republic, Carol chose Venezuela, Karen chose Israel, David chose Peru, Freddy (David's brother) chose Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, none of us won as Canada took the crown. The closest was Freddy's runner up Puerto Rico. His sophisticated hieuristic for making choices was ... choosing the worst candidate, and while the rest of us dropped like flies, he made it as far as the runner up to Miss Universe! Go figure.

While watching, we noticing celebrity resemblances. I noticed that Grace, an Alias addict, may have subconsciously chosen Dominican Republic due to her close resemblance to Jennifer Garner. Let's put up pictures for comparison:

Miss Dominican Republic

Jennifer Garner

Carol made some associations herself. She thought that my Mexico looked like Mariah Carey:

Miss Mexico

Mariah Carey

And that Miss South Africa looked like Celine Dion:

Miss South Africa

Celine Dion

Do you see the resemblance here? I believe mine is the closest thank you very much.

Erick and Phoebe's Wedding!

Sun, 29 May 2005, 18:12:59 PST

First of all, congratulations to Erick and Phoebe for getting married! For their wedding they had asked me to help play the violin...

Oops! Looks like I needed to wipe those strings down! Anyway, after practicing for the past three weekends, no embarrassingly rude screeches came out during the ceremony, so mission accomplished!

I've known Erick and Phoebe since the old College Fellowship days. Back then they were newcomers... how much have things changed!

Phoebe seemed nervous and stressed before the ceremony, but as we can see in this picture, joy took over as the ceremony progressed.

Once the ceremony was over, everyone started snapping pictures! This was also when Erick, who had to exercise restrait from his inherent goofiness during the ceremony, reverted back to himself as we can see from this next picture:

and receive the consequences of his actions by roasting his finger...

The following picture is most indicative of the marriage life of Erick and Phoebe...

...a life of goofiness. Hmm, sounds disturbingly similiar to my marriage.

Afterwards we went to the Columbia Winery for the banquet, where Erick and Phoebe arrived in style...

Later we had dinner, slideshow, toasts, the cake cutting...

and the bouquet and garter tosses...

By the way, about the slideshow, two weeks before the wedding, Phoebe came to me with an emergency request of redoing the slideshow. Apparently the videographers' version and was a plain vanilla slideshow with cheezy music, nothing you would want to show at your wedding. So night and day I toiled, staying up until 7am the night before working on it... well, excluding the hours I played the XBox game Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory during this time. What can I say... I get more inspiration at night! Anyway, so by the end I was pretty proud of my achievement, showed up at the winery by 4:30pm to work out the technical details for the projector, laptop, sound, and everything was perfect. Just perfect. I was excited as I played the slideshow for everyone. Nice large picture, fabulous sound, excellent content, and wonderful entertainment. As the slideshow came to the end and I awaited for the response, the final subtitle came on and it showed...

Erick & Phoebe
May 28th, 2004

2004?!! Oh no!! Apparently I typed in the wrong year for their wedding date! How could I have been so silly to have missed that? Doh!!

As the crowed yelled "TYPO!", the blemish has entered my masterpiece, tainted forever. Oh well. As they say in Good Will Hunting, in the end it's not the things that are perfect that you remember, but the imperfect. Now it's no longer just a slideshow. It's a story.

Yes, there are more pictures, but I didn't want to clog this blog. Maybe I'll post it at some point in the future, in my convenience.

Prediction Correct: Carrie Wins!

Wed, 25 May 2005, 23:24:06 PST

Not exactly world shattering news, however. Any bum could have arrived at the same conclusion while snoring in their sleep. I must say, though, that unlike The Apprentice where they had boring fillers with zero substance, the Idol finale drew my attention, for the most part. Except for the rehash of the audition tapes, I enjoyed watching finalists such as Jessica Sierra come back. Vonzell sang beautifully, Bo and Carrie's duet was smooth, and Simon's segment was hilarious, even if partially serving as a therapeutic exercise for Paula's scandal.

What's next? So You Think You Can Dance? Will need to keep an eye on that one.

Ebay It!

Tue, 24 May 2005, 23:59:52 PST

I've always had a fear e-bay. What about the scams? What if you bought a telescope only to receive a magnifying glass? I've seen an e-bay entry where they sold an empty XBox Box for over a hundred! You can spend the entire week tracking an item only to find out that you didn't get the item because someone outbid you in the last few seconds.

Recently, though, I've noticed more and more acquaintances who frequently conduct transactions on ebay. A coworker of mine bid on a gas pump used in a movie for over $1000. I thought his mind went cuckoo, but he justified it with the fact that he can always recoup the cost by resell it on ebay. I also know that olivetheotherreindeer regularly makes bead accessories and sells them on ebay, and Tim bought some nice Mariners tickets for much cheaper than the face value.

I decided to give ebay a try.

I got two Ichiro bobbleheads, so I listed one on e-bay. So far so good. I have an old shaver that I love but could not find the replacement blade and foil locally anywhere any more. I found one on ebay. They normally run $18-$25 in online stores, but I got one for $6.99. We'll see if it is delivered as promised.

If it all works, I may just have sweep through my garage to see if I can find some junk to sell. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure! :)

Young Anakin Force Ghost!

Tue, 24 May 2005, 00:14:52 PST

Karen and I finished our own Star Wars trilogy marathon, starting from Thursday until today, one episode a day. It wasn't until today that I noticed something disturbing in the Return of the Jedi DVD. This is the original scene I remember:

This is what I saw instead:

What the heck? Since when did Hayden Christensen get in there, and with the evil eyes too! Come on! Stop trying to tweak things. What's with Anakin staying forever young next to the Old-Bi Wan? And to top it off, the original ending music was replaced by another weak ending music.

In watching this marathon, I noticed there are more holes between the prequels and sequels than my stinking socks! For one, in the sequels, Yoda seemed to have trained Obi-Wan. In the prequel, it was Qui-Gon. In the sequels, it appears that Obi-Wan was also pretty old when trained, but in the prequel, even the baby Anakin was too old. In the sequels, the emperor refers to the light saber as a Jedi weapon, but he himself used it as a Sith. Also, in the scene when Luke asked Leia about her mother, they were both there and were both infants! How could she have remembered anything? Baby Force?

After watching everything, I must decidedly say that sequels kick the prequels' butts. I missed the great acting of Harrison Ford as the smarty pants with witty remarks. By contrast, Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman are as stiff as the bolts on the tires of my CR-V! C-3PO beats Jar Jar the clown any day. Oh, and there's something about CGI that just subconsciously doesn't seem as realistic as muppets. The old Yoda, for example, just seemed more real even if it's some little dude holding a Yoda head.

Still, Episode III does tie the prequels with the sequels nicely.

The Charismatic Church vs. The Conservative Church

Mon, 23 May 2005, 00:25:57 PST

So after attending Shakina and seeing the kneeling prayer warriors, it brought me back to the question of the charismatics versus the conservatives. Do we embrace the spiritual matters, or do we focus on faith alone? Should we search our feelings, or do the feelings lead to the Dark Side?

During my high school years, one of the worship leaders at my church, Daniel, was "filled with the spirit" at a conference and started busting out in tongues. He said he was overflowing with joy that he started crying, and this coming from a geeky computer major. My first experience with such an event was when we had a fellowship night where some people from another fellowship came over for a "spiritual filling" night. Despite those people layed their holy hands and chanted some mombo jumbo in Greek (as if God spoke Greek better than English), I did not speak in tongues that night, but neither did Daniel. So much for that. I have been researching this topic since, but let's analyze the pros and cons I've observed so far.

On one hand, if you accept charismatics, then you believe that the gifts still exist. That means people still speak in tongues, have gift of healing, have word of knowledge, cast out demons, and prophesy. As a result, people in charismatic churches tend to seek God more because God is more real. They pray to God more often, humble at the feet of God, and are more sensitive to spiritual matters such as spiritual attacks. They follow God with their hearts. Admirable.

On the other hand, if the very Spirit that inspired the apostles still prophesy through people today, then it's like a continuation of the Bible. If anything it's even more relevant than the Bible because it's the Spirit Daily with today's date, instead of back issues from thousands of years ago! This is where heresy starts in many charismatics churches. How can you tell between the true believer and the con artist? Once they learn the lingo and put on the "Praise The Lord" tag, it's hard to separate the sheep from the goats.

What I see in the conservative church is the opposite. It's all brains and not much heart. Instead of coming to seek God for worship services, the sermon is the service. Some people felt that if the sermons are dull, then they're not being fed and they need to look for a different church! Many people who serve also do it out of duty. I've seen email sent with "It's your Christian duty to..." Many people who serve tend to use their own strengths rather than God's, as sometimes they get so busy they have no time to pray! And what about the silly little game of putting your thumb up for prayer before a meal? "Oh no I really put up my thumb before yours!! You just didn't see it! Okay okay, fine... I'll pray". It's almost like a punishment! Prayer is definitely not the same in the conservative church.

Before you still yelling at me saying "I don't do that!", I want to add a disclaimer that these are just generalizations and not everyone does everything listed above. I attend a conservative church and am guilty for some of the items I've listed out, but I'm open to either side.

One thing's for sure, if the Spirit of God is actively working today, I want to be part of it.

Shakina: Revival Meeting or Charismania?

Sat, 21 May 2005, 00:46:35 PST

Have you seen windshields with Shakina written on them?

So Shakina is supposed to be about bringing all churches in the Puget Sound area together in a revival meeting. Unfortunately when you meet at UW, it sends the message that it's organized by students for students. Besides a few curious adults and undercover pastors, it's pretty much just students, students and more students. Curiously, although there were some caucasian churches listed on their web site like Overlake Christian Church and Mars Hill, if you look across, it's pretty much black heads all over.

The worship leader had a very David Crowder-esque voice, and his guitar skills were impressive. However, some of his songs were very unfamiliar, so at times it felt more like a concert than a worship session. He tried to crack a few jokes, some of which seemed rather awkward that sent people frowning. There were also many references to "healing", including if you just worship, you will be healed.

I must say I admire the gesture of the people wearing blue Shakina T-shirts, who I assume are from Jubilee. They kneel on the floor at show their humility without caring about how they're perceived.

Including bowing head to floor. I wish I had the boldness and courage to do that before thousands of people.

Now Shakina is organized by Jubilee church, and there have been some concerns regarding charismatics. The most curious story was that some pastor prayed for mother and child in QFC when all of a sudden, lightning striked, and they were both healed. There were two unnecessarily long testimonies, and by the middle of the second one, it was pretty cold so we left for dinner. When we got back, people were just doing a little talking, a little praying, and a testimony about a sister being "freed" along with a bunch of "amens".

I will get into more details tomorrow regarding my view of the charismatic church versus the conservative church.

Boooooring!

Fri, 20 May 2005, 07:21:08 PST

That's the most I can say about last night's Apprentice Finale. I'm glad they didn't ask Regis Philbin to turn it into another talk show, but it was 30 minutes filler and 29 minutes commercial. The only thing deserving our attention was the part where Trump said "You're Hired!", which lasted the whole 2 seconds. There's no twist, no build-up, nothing. I thought Trump would blindside us by hiring Tana, but nope! Talk about a poor excuse for an extra episode!

Then again, the whole thing is a sham anyway, as the Apprentice really does engage more with the media than doing real work. Trump has been quoted in Newsweek as having said, "It's a little bit too much to ask someone to be the president of a $800 million building when they haven't had that kind of experience".

So does it really matter who gets hired? Trump should have hired them both. At least that'll give the audience something to talk about.

The Garage

Thu, 19 May 2005, 01:33:14 PST

Today was when we had our ship party! At 1:30pm, they hauled us over to a place called The Garage in Seattle:

It sounded like a place I should take my car in for an oil change, doesn't it? Well, it's not. They actually have entertainment facilities such as...

...bowling lanes. Two sets of them, as a matter or fact, on the first floor and in the basement. By the time I got there, the place was packed wall to wall with Microsoft people, so we had to go downstairs and join another game. The first game I stunk, but half way through the second game, I started getting the feel! The 12 pounder was definitely for me, and I learned to fitness the second shot. It was pretty funny because everytime someone was close, people started yelling "You got robbed!"

It came down to the tenth frame, between me and Jidesh, and ultimately... Jidesh snapped under pressure, and I won. I took a picture of my score, 125, as I may never break 100 again for the rest of the year:

They wanted to start a third game, but I had to leave while I was ahead and end on a high note, right? I went upstairs and enjoyed their other attraction:

Pool. Lots of them. So we played double with another team and got decimated on the first game. Nothing was going in. Straight shots. Curved shots. Jump ball. Masse. Nothing. I felt like I've let down my higher school geometry teacher.

On the third game, we played cutthroat because there were only three of us, and then I heard a weak voice in the background... "Use the force, James". I decided to "feel" the shots instead of calculating the precise angle of impact. I also decided to finesse instead of overpowering the ball. In the end, there was only one ball standing. Mine. Wow... two victories today. Beginners luck, you're probably thinking, and you're probably right.

Anyway, that's it for my ship party. By now you're probably wondering, does James ever get any work done? Well, I'm wondering the same thing, but shh... don't tell anyone.

The Rise of Darth Vader Tonight at Midnight!

Wed, 18 May 2005, 02:24:33 PST

It's coming on Thursday and I can't wait to watch the final episode! Some fans, however, have lost their common sense waiting for this film by lining up since the beginning of the month! While some have found their significant other in one of these geek lines, the prize for being the sillest must go to Sarah Sprague, who lined up at Hollywood's Chinese Theatre. There is only one problem with it--they're not showing Star Wars there! "Yeah we've heard that before," she said, refusing to budge. I'd hate to spend a month sleeping in tents, playing the same board games day in and day out, take showers with a towel and a bottle of water, and in the end, find out "Oops, wrong theatre!"

I have been a big fan. The first time I saw Star Wars was when I was seven, when Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back came out. I was a little shorter back then, and I remember walking next to my dad on our way to the theatre room when we passed by a cotton candy stand. When I turned to plead my case for cotton candy, I realized next to me was not my dad but a stranger! After some frantically searching for my family, I found my parents back at the cotton candy stand, purchasing some for us already. What can I say? All the long legs in motion looked the same to me back then...

I was way too young to watch the movie Empire Strikes Back, though, even at the rating of PG. My recollection of the movie wasn't much, but the scene of Han Solo getting processed into cryogenic storage would return in the form of nightmares. My memory must have misencoded the movie, as the disturbingly realistic nightmares would compose of a dark space with cryogenic C3PO flying in the air, with eerily dim candles around. I remember it to this day.

It didn't deter my obsession for Star Wars, however. After coming to the States, I watched Star Wars: A New Hope on HBO, and because I didn't understand a word of that movie in English, my imagination filled in the conversations. It didn't deter me from my Star Wars craze, however. I lived with my granduncle and many of the natives in his National Geographic magazines began holding light sabers thanks to my trusty erasers and my ability to draw light sabers with them. It went downhills, however, once I started erasing eyes to make them glow, and eventually started erasing mustaches and Fu Manchu's.

I was also obsessed with Darth Vader. I simulated Darth Vader breathalizer by taking an empty jar and breathing heavily into it. Darth Vader had the uncanny ability to breath and talk at the same time, so I resorted to recording the deep breathing and play it back as I talked into the jar. My obsession didn't end with the voice. One time I saw the Darth Vader mask for sale at a grocery store and immediately fell in love! Put on the mask, put on the Helmet, and voila! Darth Vader. I regretted not getting it though. Recently I saw one for sale at Target for $40 that included a voice-changing device. No more jars required! I was soooo tempted to get one, but ... needed to tell myself budget minded. budget minded. budget minded.

There will never be another movie like Star Wars. I can't wait for the movie to come out, and hopefully, no more nightmares this time.

Mariners 3, Yankees 6

Tue, 17 May 2005, 02:17:36 PST

Earlier last week, Tim Hsiung had asked Karen and I to attend a Mariners game today. It wasn't until later that I realized the real reason Tim wanted to go: Yankee's Starting Pitcher Chien-Ming Wang.

After every inning that Wang pitched, we witnessed flashes of blue and red, the Taiwanese flag.

I suppose that being Taiwanese, I should show some national pride as well. Time to brush the dust off the Shaq-sized Taiwan flag from my attic...

On a side note, when you're super thirsty and the enticing cold lemonade makes its way down the steps as it preys on the feeble minded, resist the urge. We gave in to our cravings and paid the $3.75 Safeco tax. Instead of lemonade, we received Iced Water (1% lemon juice).

Stay away from it. You've been warned.

So the game progressed along with Mariners Pitcher Sele pitching better than expected. Unfortunately he wouldn't go far enough as Hasegawa and Sherill took over in relief. Finally when they called the clown...

JJ Klutz... Oops, I mean JJ Putz. I turned and told Tim "And this is where Yankees hit a Grand Salami".
Tim: "Bernie doesn't have that power any more".
Me: "Yeah, but he's up against Putz".

That's when Bernie proceeded to put the ball over the fence. If I can only be so accurate about other things.

So Chien-Ming Wang gets a W for the win, and the Taiwanese Nationals were ecstatic. It seemed bizarre, however, that someone would bring a poster of Wang's wedding photo. By the way, doesn't Wang look a little like Hideki Matsui?

After the ball game, Karen had cravings for popcorn chicken, so we headed back to Oasis. Even though I already blogged about the deceptive drinks at Oasis, I just had to take a picture of the incriminating poster...

I refused to purchase their drinks, but the popcorn chicken was good. Wish I had something to drink while downing the salty chicken though.

Free Frosties

Sun, 15 May 2005, 23:34:41 PST

On Saturday we watched the movie "Assault on Precinct 13". I loved watching Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus from the Matrix), who had the sedated composure regardless of circumstances, although I admit it was a little odd for him to be staring at the floor with twenty semi's shooting in the background. I highly recommend this movie for action movie fans.

Today is an anomalous yet awesome sports day, as both the Sonics and the Mariners won! For the record, I never should have doubted the Sonics. I admit I'm a big wagoner, as when they got demolished by the Spurs during their first two games in the second round, I thought they were mismatched and completely outclassed. Tonight they have proven that they have a few tricks up their sleeves against Tim Duncan and his crew. They have renewed my faith in them, for now.

Tonight, I dropped by Wendy's for my last dosages of their free Junior Frosties. As I approached the drive-thru window, the cashier remark, "Back again!" Whoa, at this rate we'll be on a first-name basis shortly! By the way, my keen observations suggested to me that their Junior sized frosties are increasing in size. Check this out:

At this rate, if I return tomorrow, I should expect:

Unfortunately the free frosty deal is over tonight, and I don't want to find out how much that frostie would cost tomorrow!

Are You Hungry

Sun, 15 May 2005, 02:25:54 PST

Last night Tim, Keri, Karen and I planned to have dinner. Carol Han had mentioned there was an annual Are You Hungry night market at University of Washington, so we decided to check it out. At first I was salivating at the thought of eating Taiwanese foods like Oyster Pancake, Stinky Tofu, Assorted Cow Organs, and Pig Ears. When we went inside to purchase the tickets, we saw a line that resembled the line for the Ichiro Bobble head doll...

And after this you would need to line up at the stands! I prefer not to wait, but to be waited on, thank you very much, so off to Chinatown we go.

On the way out, we noticed some guys trying to create "art":

What is "art"? To me, art is worthless junk whose value has been increased by gullible buyers. After all, college students could create "art" by stacking a bunch of bikes from who knows where! Speaking of which, has anyone seen my bike lately?

On the way back, we dropped by Wendy's for our free Frosties. Sitting in my car, I sheepishly ordered, "Four junior frosties please!". "Anything else?" "Nope!" Just when I thought we ordered a significant share of frosties, another car pulled up behind us and ordered "Ten Frosties please!" "Anything else?" "Nope!" Unless they had stacks of babies, who shouldn't be eating ice cream in the first place I should note, it's doubtful they were able to squeeze ten people in that 4 seater! I could see the cashier shaking her head, flubbergasted. "Ten junior frosties at the next window." Greedy creeps!

Oasis Bubble Tea False Advertising?

Sat, 14 May 2005, 02:25:03 PST

Tonight after fellowship, we went to Oasis in downtown. To the right of the cashier hangs a gigantic poster with the words "Slush" and "Made with real fruit!" and on the poster were images of various slushes, one of which is the Taro. Today I decided to ask the cashier which flavors use real fruit, and guess what? Very few. What about Taro? "Powder". Since I had no craving for any particular drink, I put on my imaginary adventure hat and ordered the first item on the special menu--Avocado. She asked me if I wanted a little fudge on top. Yes, I said (what do I know?) Cha-Ching! That will be $4.00 thank you very much. Ouch. When the product was delivered, it looked like fudge and it tasted like the fudge. Yes I had a cup of $4 fudge in my hand, not including tax.

Oasis is definitely decending rapidly in my short Bubble Tea list...

Apprentice Party!

Fri, 13 May 2005, 00:05:37 PST

Last night I invited Happyfish to a BBQ Apprentice party at my place. We have a charcoal grill, mostly for the flavor, but starting a BBQ fire is always a hurdle. So I googled the internet for some tips, and found:

Electric Charcoal Starter. The testimonials on the internet seem to love this thing, so I bought one from Fred Meyer for $10.50 after 30% garden rebate. The directions show that you lay down a layer of charcoal, stick the tool in there, lay another layer, plug it in for 8 minutes as it heats to above 100 degrees, remove the tool, and wait for 10 minutes as it turns grey. The result should be hot charcoal with no aid of petroleum. Sounds easy? Well, after I removed the tool and waited, whistled, read the entire phone book, and jogged around Lake Sammamish, it still wasn't ready! On the other hand, Jeffrey brought his grill and relented to using the fluid, and in 3 seconds whoosh, the fire was up! So much for the starter. Well, maybe I should practice a little more before passing judgment on this ineffective device.

How about the Apprentice? We're seeing Tana remove her sheep skin and revealing a giant scorpion. When the governor just sat around, she offered donuts?! And how do you miss the flag of the United States of America? Okay, for that one, I can't help but wonder if Trump has little devious mischiefmakers purposely removing the US flag for "Reality TV", as I recall from the first season, one of the teams found the sponsor's sign in the garbage! Also in this task, they printed the personal remarks about each candidate on the program?! Inconceivable! It's difficult to imagine that anyone, even the Three Stooges, could have such a offensive oversight.

On the other hand, everything seems smooth sailing for Kendra. Almost too much so. Then again, her task was much easier and she had a better crew. She didn't need to deal with the governor and famous atheletes. She just needed to keep her sponsors, PS2 and Best Buy, happy. The tasks are so even it's like comparing running a Grand Slam tournament and running a hot dog stand. Still, we need to give credit to Kendra for doing a good job. Personally, I still don't believe Kendra is corporate VP material, as she is too emotional and could use some work in her overall presence, but with the deviousness of Tana, I have no choice but to root for Kendra.

And despite this seemingly lopsided win on the final task and the fact Kendra killed Tana in the boardroom, Princess Di and George still managed to utter "They both did a great job", and "It's going to be a tough decision". It's as if the last hour of The Apprentice didn't even occur! Even if Tana were to push the governor into the pool, swipe Michael Phelps with the flag pole, and frentically yell "Fire!!!", the outcome of this boardroom would still be the same.

Then again, maybe this is all a misdirection. While we're bamboozled by all these edited clips, in actuality Kendra's team actually backstabbed her the same way Tana did her team. Maybe there were lots more mishaps than we saw. I guess we will have to find out next week in the third and final installment of this overly elongated episode of The Apprentice.

As I expected, Anthony is out!

Thu, 12 May 2005, 01:38:52 PST

Now that we've whacked the weeds and separated the sheep from the goats, Vonzell will be next to go, unfortunately.

Are You A Fitness Enthusiast Too?

Tue, 10 May 2005, 10:51:59 PST

Huey had asked me to be the main photographer for their wedding reception. At first I hesitated because I had no experience in this department and didn't want to end up with a picture resembling two red-eyed monsters butchering the wedding cake. But when Huey insisted, I relented. So to avert a fiasco, I decided to pick up a book on wedding photography, the book "Digital Wedding Photography" by Paul Gero.

As I stepped into Borders at Bellevue Square to buy the book, Karen equipped me with a 10% off coupon that she was award for being added on Border's spam list. After handing the book and the coupon to the cashier, she incessantly tried to scan the coupon on a scratched up bar-code scanner, in futility of course. Finally, exasperated, she turned to me and asked, "Do you work out?" I was dumbstruck by this question. Is my physique showing signs of... neglect? Before I had a chance to respond, she continued, "Sure you do." and scanned another coupon...

20% off for "Fitness Enthusiasts"! This brought up a good question... why didn't she just scan the 20% coupon in the first place, especially when these coupons are just laying out there?!? How rude!

Anyway, on my way home, I noticed on the receipt that I got both the 20% and the 10%! Hey, what a deal!

Good Morning Seattle!

Tue, 10 May 2005, 10:20:00 PST

While I'm at describing some of my lifestyle, I'll give you a glimpse at my morning. First of all, except for dire situation, I believe in the mental alarm in my biological clock. When I wake, I get up. Occasionally the alarm misfires and rings at 6:30am in the morning, but that's when I hit snooze. Sure, there are days when I need to hit snooze twenty times before I wake up, but look on the bright side. I don't need to wake to a heart-pounding, terrifying, artificial buzz that drains the energy out of me!

Then after taking my shower, I'll run downstairs for some hearty cereal. This is where I need to introduce you to my favorite cereals:

First of all, no self-respecting man should have less than two cereal. In the morning I alternate between Great Grains, which Karen bought by accident once, and the Honey Bunches of Oaks. By the way, Target sells Great Grains for a dollar cheaper than everywhere else. Nothing like a good dose of fiber in the morning for softening your bowel movement. Now Cocoa Pebbles, which is much better than Cocoa Krispies, is for when I have no dessert at night and I need something sweet. You start eating cereal but end up drinking chocolate milk! Excellent. This type of indulgence has got to be illegal in some states...

Then I pop up my laptop and do my devotions with the Daily Bread. It's different than the free booklet that resembles junk mail. You actually get more than one verse to read with the online version, and then you get a story and a one-line application to reflect on for the rest of the day. After all these years, I've found the key to having devotions regularly in the morning, and this is it. Having Post Cereal with the Bread of Life.

A Day In The Life of James

Mon, 09 May 2005, 12:48:00 PST

Woke up at 7am this morning. Five hours of sleep. Every Sunday morning I defy the law of my 10am wake up time and get my butt up in preparation for our English congregation at EKC. It was quite silly that the worship set I initially picked was about servanthood and not mother. It wouldn't have been good to be singing about servants on Mother's day, would it? So I had to change the set after we already practiced with the band. It's one of the weeks I feel less comfortable with the worship set I picked, so I needed God's help this week. Praise God everything went smoothly. Now a new "mandate" (that I offered a dissent opinion on) was that we need to incorporate a hymn in our set. So I picked "I Love You Lord". Any song written before 1980 qualifies as a hymn, doesn't it?

After the service, Karen's sister Carol called from Hawaii. It was 8:35am and she needed a church to attend. The thought of sending her to a black church where she can worship in energy and style did briefly cross my mind, but I quickly dismissed it. We were in the car and didn't have access to the internet, and my phone was low on battery. Which slacker could we call that won't be at church on Sunday morning? Hmm... So we called Jimmy, but he wasn't home. Praise God. Then we realized someone we can count on who definitely will be at home--Allen or Justine. Justine was able to give us some options, and after eliminating two Church of Christ entries, we were able to find two options for Carol, Chinese Baptist Church and a Chinese Alliance Church in Honolulu.

Then Stella, Carol, Eddie, Karen and I dined at the Malay Satay Hut. Shueli, our real estate agent and sister at church, came in and was in a hurry. She grabbed a chair, chatted with us a little, then decided she wouldn't have time to eat if she sat with us. She changed tables, sat by herself so she can actually finish her lunch, then came back and chatted a little more and ended up paying for our bill! Guess we should eat at Malay Satay Hut more often. I can't say that Carol and Eddie deserved it, thought, considering they didn't even know who Shueli was! :P Eddie was really excited to order some Bonga Cha Cha desert, which turned out to be some purple goo with yellow sweet potatoes. After clearing up the confusion, the waitress was nice enough to replace it with what Eddie really wanted, which was some black goo that looked like tar. Then after a gust of durian wind blew gently toward our direction, we knew it was time to go.

I was supposed to offer U-Haul services with my trusty CRV to Karen's sister Carol in Hawaii, but apparently neither the source of the merchandise (Esther) nor the delivery destination (Karen's little sister Keri) knew of this arrangement. We needed to reschedule my professional moving services to another day.

So with a few hours open, we decided to work on our fence a little bit more. After just doing a sub-par job yesterday on a section that now flaps like a flag, I decided to exercise more due diligence this time around. We were able to finish one section before a drop of rain hit my lazy bone, when I called it quits.

That's also when I realized my atomic clock was slow (no really!), and I was late for a quartet practice for Phoebe's wedding. I arrived at Gabe's, emptied my violin case of its moths, picked up my violin, and produced some sounds that no human being should ever be subjected to. Clearly I overestimated my 7 years of violin experience. I guess I should have given weight on the 12 years of inexperience between those 7 years and the present. I hope Phoebe's not reading this blog.

Then Karen and I went to Sushi Land for some dinner, where we saw Felicia and someone who she just picked up from the airport. I put up a smile, said hi, shook hands, then in the next .57 seconds completely forgot her friend's name. Oh wait, or was it her relative? Okay, am I getting old, or just not caring as much? Clearly I need to work on this.

After going home and calling my mom and grandma to wish them a happy Mother's Day, we watched some TV. Karen enjoyed her one episode of Full House, and then we saw a couple of episodes of Project Greenlight. It's a reality show that chooses a director and script and shows the process of the movie being made, to be released by Dimension Films. The director may be brilliant, but he seriously has communication problems. I seriously wonder if he has ever made contact with humans. And when he wanted to cast only his family and friends and just rejected everyone else, it made me roll my eyes more times than my wheels rolling on the freeway. Seeing his struggles with the entire crew made me realize the importance of getting your team on your side in order to get things done.

Anyway, that's about it. There's work tomorrow, and I'm late for my sleep!

Want to win the lottery? No, you really don't. Really.

Sat, 07 May 2005, 23:23:43 PST

I read an interesting article on the lottery and offer an interesting perspective on this subject. Have you imagined what it would be like to win the lottery? Regardless of whether you're the type who would go get yourself a Batmobile or give millions of dollars to charity, there's another picture that you should consider.

There's nothing wrong with having an abundance of money, as money is just a means to accomplish things. When it comes to Lotto, though, we're talking about a whole different beast. Some people have problems dealing with instant financial success, so they end up may end up blowing their money by purchasing thousands of beanie babies from ebay or buying a house next to Bill Gates without considering the tax and mortgage. This is, as we will see, the least of our worries.

Once you win the Lotto, a picture of you with your big white teeth will be featured in the local paper along with an association with millions of money. Your phone may ring more than usual as people try to get closer to you, and some friends may push you away because you're out of their league. Some may eye you like a materialistic pig even if it isn't true. This one guy who won the lottery had friends who borrow $50,000 and not return it, thinking what's $50K to a multi-millionaire. One lotto winner was so fed up that he ended up living in a trailer, living a life of solitude. "I just want to be happy," he says, "but it's not goinna happen. I can't trust anybody". Basically you have to start filtering your friends to find out who's genuine and who's putting up a front, but the truth is, you may never know.

But the biggest concern you should have is dealing with the evil in this world. constantly carried cash with him, went to a bar, got drugged, and then mugged. Another one, Billie Bob Harrell, was found naked and dead in his master bedroom from a gunshot blast to the chest. There were three suicide notes, but who knows? Even if you're not concerned about your own life, what about your family members? For one lotto winner, Andrew Jackson Whittaker, his granddaughter was murdered shortly after he won. No amount of money can bring her back to life. Living your life in constant fear that one of your family members may be kidnapped for ransom can be pretty intense.

While most people think about what they can accomplish when winning the lotto, they don't consider the consequences. Over time, life becomes composed of distrust, seclusion, and fear. Maybe that's why one of the lotto winners actually said that he wish he had torned up the ticket the day he won, because it was "the worst thing that ever happened to him".

Would you still like to win the lotto?

Tana or Kendra? That is the question.

Fri, 06 May 2005, 12:34:22 PST

After 15 episodes of The Apprentice, it's down to the final two, Tana and Kendra. While my enthusiasm for Tana has abated a bit after last week's bedazzler fiasco, I still find Tana fitting the role of Trump's VP better than Kendra. Tana has more polished and professional language than Kendra, who tends to use ambiguous words like "stuff". Tana, however, seems a bit lacking in the creative department lately.

In the last assignment, I couldn't fathom why Kendra wasn't at the meeting with Best Buy executives, leaving Danny the unfocused goofball in charge. To her credit, she recovered gracefully. Her biggest issue right now is the PS2 ballroom, err... I mean basement, so things don't look rosey. On Tana's side, I cringed when she gave executive power to each of the Three Stooges for acting on her behalf. That's silly. Sure, they can make decisions, but the Project Manager needs to oversee these decisions. Judging from the preview, we should expect a fire drill as Brian takes his newfound anarchy too far and becomes out of control.

Tana's stock has been dropping while Kendra's has been rising, but neither candidate has it all. If we combine the best of Tana, the professionalism, and the best of Kendra, the smarts, only then can we end up with the perfect apprentice...

... Kenna!

Finally, American Idol Justice Served.

Thu, 05 May 2005, 23:01:12 PST

Scott's departure this week from American Idol actually came as a total surprise to me. Earlier this week I discovered the votefortheworst.com web site (which is currently down), and with the kind of publicity it gets, I assumed many people would vote for him just to throw the show a curveball. I was at the verge of casting my 1500 for Scott, and it would have made good controversial blog material. In the end, though, I weighted the emotions of the contestants, their family, their friends, their pets, etc. and just couldn't pull the trigger. Playing a practical joke on the producers at the expense of the dreams of these contestants made my moral compass go haywire.

Next elimination? Anthony.

Speaking of American Idol, that brings us to the primetime story on Corey Clark. How convenient that after three years and shortly before releasing his CD that this story would surface? During the interview, his parents seemed nonchalant at the whole situation. Corey tried to play the innocent card, but if you observe the order of events carefully, it was Corey who first hugged and flirted with Paula. Corey is an opportunistic wanton. He first manipulates Paula during his competition, then gets booted for lying to the producers, and finally fabricates a story to promote his new CD.

If you even consider buying his CD, you might as well as buy all your music CDs in Hong Kong for 99 cents per burnt CD with poorly photocopied inserts. Either way, you're positively reinforcing deception.

Just say no.

Are You In For Freebies?

Tue, 03 May 2005, 23:07:08 PST

Some say that there's no such thing as a free lunch. They're wrong. With the saturation of internet use and everyone rushing online to digest their daily share of random writing (like this one), the paradigm has shifted for the publishing industry. Advertising revenues are declining for publications such as newspaper and magazines, and they need more subscribers. By now you're probably thinking, "That mumbo jumbo's cool, James, but what do I care?"

Well, this is where you and I come in. I, for one, am more than happy to aid these poor publication companies in securing their advertisers by subscribing to their magazines--for free. Skeptical of this? Check out this anonymous quote from... uh... someone... "I've had so many free magazines sent to my door in the past year that I'm contemplating about cancelling some just to free up some real estate in my mailbox!"

If you've never received anything for free in life except junk mail, it's time to break that cycle! Check out techbargains.com's free magazine section now! Most offers are for obscure magazines that need publicity, though, so patience may be a virtue here.

Little Kam--Made In USA

Mon, 02 May 2005, 10:58:27 PST

If you haven't heard by now, congratulations to Justine for producing the next baby in the Kam line organically--100% natural! My first impression in seeing the baby was that it looks just like a cacoon, wrapped up in a tiny, bitsy little space.

Despite my efforts to have her named Handy (Handy Kam), they went against my wisdom and named her Madeline instead. Allen, being the spiderman zealot, really wanted to call his daughter MJ (Mary Jane), hence the name Madeline Joy Kam. From this point forth, she shall be referred to as MJ.

And here's my futile attempt at pacifying MJ, shortly before she began wailing. It's still difficult to make out whether she is predominantly Justine or Allen. I must say, though, she is one cute baby... I guess I answered my own question. She's gotta be closer to Justine.

AQ's "Specially Flavored" Ramen

Sun, 01 May 2005, 22:59:05 PST

Carol my sister-in-law, who had just returned from a business trip to Vancouver, excitedly handed me two bowls of ramen. "Oh you got to try this! It's very delicious!" Promptly Karen and I altered our lunch plans from dining at Canlis to eating these bowls of ramen at home. We anxiously boiled some water, and with the whistle of the kettle, deluged the styrofoam bowls with steaming water and sealed the bowl. After waiting what seemed like an eternity, we lifted the lid. If you're expecting mouth-watering, delicious fragrance, think again.

It stunk. Like the gutter.

A closer inspection of the packaging revealed the words, "AQ Stinky Stinky Pot". In which part of the world do companies intentionally use the word "stink" to describe its own product as an advertisement? And where do people line up to indulge in fermented, foul tofu flavored with Chinatown dark alley aroma?

Only in Taiwan.

Now personally I enjoy the Stinky Tofu, but this Stinky Ramen didn't meet the bar. To be frank, it just didn't stink enough, as the weak smell seemed more like an afterthought. A word of advise to AQ: Next time you advertise something, take it all the way. Don't wimp out and give us some half-baked aroma thinking that the consumers wouldn't notice the difference. That nasty stench needs to permeate through our mouth, nose, and pores with each bite to attain the highest level of satisfaction.

Only then can this stinky culinary product be complete.

Dandelions: Don't Weed Them, Eat Them!

Thu, 28 Apr 2005, 21:51:13 PST

Today as I researched for a method to organically eliminate dandelions from my yard, I became enlightened. Why remove them when you can eat them? After all, they are more nutritious than spinach. They're high in vitamin A and C, and contains an impressive amount of calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and copper! Just look at this nutrition fact box:

Let me present you with your next Valentine's dinner menu:

Appetizers
Hot Dandelion Root with Salt and Butter
Roasted Dandelion Roots

Salad
Dandelion Salad with Warm Hazelnut Vinaigrette

Entree
Pan-Roasted Chicken with Wilted Dandelion and Bacon

Dessert
Dandelion Ice Cream

Drinks
Dandelion Coffee/Dandelion Beer

You can visit this site for more Dandelion specialty ideas including the Dandelion Omelette, Veal and Dandelion, and Italian Dandelion Casserole.

So stop dumping those dandelions into the Yard Waste Bin! You're literally throwing your dinner away. Do yourself a favor and save yourself a trip to Safeway by preparing your hearty meal with the superior, nutritious substitute!

Oh, and if you don't have a backyard or just want free produce, contact Vivien Ng. She has a massive dandelion vegetable garden in her backyard, enough to feed a family of four for an entire year.

All the closet Anthony and Scott fans show yourselves NOW!!!

Wed, 27 Apr 2005, 11:48:49 PST

During tonight's American Idol elimination, my jaw dropped to the floor as Constantine Maroulis was booted off the show. I was so appalled that Scott wasn't in the bottom three that I almost threw Karen's little brown honey bear at the TV set! While I must sheepishly admit I did not vote last night, it wouldn't have made a difference as all 600 of my votes would have gone to Vonzelle. Nevertheless, it was inconceivable for Constantine to get eliminated while Scott, whose voice has no lower register--or higher as witnessed by that whimpy falsetto today, continues to weazel his way to safety from week to week. Okay, who voted for him?!! Stop hiding in the corner of that dusty closet! Come out and stand still while I slap you silly!

Star Wars Fanatics

Tue, 26 Apr 2005, 12:42:02 PST

It never ceases to amaze me how much time people have on their hands. Ever since the first Star Wars film, fans have dusted their trusty handycams and created fan films in their closet, bathroom, gazebo, you name it.

The best so far is Star Wars: Revelations. This is not your typical Star Wars Kid type of fan movie, but forty minutes of special effects virtually indistinguishable from production film. I tip my hat to these folks that dedicated three years of their lives on this. Impressive.

But my favorite is Sith Apprentice, a more comedic piece of work. If you religiously watch The Apprentice, this film will have you rolling around hysterically on the dirty carpet picking up bits of cereal and cracker jacks.

Personally I have a few fan films up my sleeves, including a Nightmare on Carlota Street, where I was an elementary school student running away from Freddy Kreuger around the house. Maybe I'll post a video of it later.

TGIFO!

Tue, 26 Apr 2005, 10:32:00 PST

They just announced at work that we get Fridays off until end of May! During the busy work week, it is quite difficult to find an open time slot to call stores that open 8-5 M-F, so time to take care of errands, work on the fence, do yard work, and relax in the lawn staring at the aphids devouring our plants. Oh, it also means four day weekend on Memorial Day weekend! Yeah!

Miss Saigon the Freefall Ride

Mon, 25 Apr 2005, 12:19:46 PST

Finally, I've experienced the third and final installment of the Big Three musicals last night, Miss Saigon. Our party included my wife Karen, Jimmy, Andrew, Carol, Howe, Jeffrey, and Grace. Here is the rankings from one of the foremost authority on musicals, the James Lee Musical Meter:

1. Les Miserables
2. Phantom Of The Opera
3. Miss Saigon

Miss Saigon is like Freefall from Magic Mountain amusement park--it takes you slowly up to the top, then drops you down. For most of the musical, it seemed like a flat movie that plays, and for a moment I pushed myself to keep my little yawn in.

It starts with some spicy scenes deemed inappropriate for children under 18, so I wouldn't recommend bringing your little nephew to the show. No dozing off here. Then strangely you start watching some acrobatic men in disturbing masks and dragon chasing the tiger. Just when you thought it was over the top, you get to see the overly enlarged face of Ho Chi Minh along with all his moles with facial hair growing out of it. Then you get the famous chopper scene, but with the blinking light and people falling, for a minute I thought "What tha...?!?" as it was taking out civilians. Then there's some Elvis and Marilyn scene and more raunchy scenes in contrast to the dragon dance.

Then as you approach the end, you see the inevitable coming, and before you know it, you're balling. Then the climax, and Bam! Game over. Thank you for using Saigon Eye Lubrication Services. There was not a dry eye in the theatre, except maybe Jimmy and Andrew who adopted an analytical approach to watching musicals. For the rest of us, it left us in a funky state.

What's missing from Miss Saigon is recurring melodies. In Les Miserables, you hear similar melodies over and over again, rehashed in different forms, so that when you leave the musical, the melody sticks out of your nose and ears. With Miss Saigon, there was nothing. Dead silence on the way back in the car, well, except for Andrew getting shut down but that's a different story.

As we were leaving the theatre, we noticed that Jeffrey and Andrew decided to show their brotherhood:

Good thing they're guys. I can't imagine the pain and suffering for two girls to wear twin outfits to a musical...

On the way back, we discussed how musicals sometimes need to substitute actors of different races, and that the evil dude who got wasted by Miss Sai was not Vietnamese. But it wasn't as disturbing as the last Les Miserables that we saw, where Fantine unexpectedly became Fantina (black), which... kind of changes things.

Anyway, in the end, it's still worth watching Miss Saigon at least once, but remember to bring your tissues so you won't be wetting your pants with your tears.

Despite Gloomy Season, Incredibles Win Championship!

Sun, 24 Apr 2005, 01:23:00 PST

It's not a story about the superheros in the new DVD. The Incredibles is a volleyball team in Michael Chang's CSL Volleyball League, and one of the players is yours truly. If you need a story for hope, a story for inspiration, a story for comeback... search no further than this.

During the regular season, the team struggled. Wins were hard to come by, and the team members didn't gel. In fact, we had won only 4 games during the regular season, out of 24. It was grueling time, it was tough, and there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. Some players thought this would be the last season they join CSL volleyball, as wins were tough to come by. In a blink of the eye, the regular season was over.

Then came the playoffs.

So we began to seek practice opportunities. Some of us went to First Presbyterian Church on Thursday night for open gym. We also had a practice session... at 8am?!? Yeah, thanks Jeffrey. Drousily we woke up before the rooster crowed and pushed ourselves to practice.

The team began to gel.

On Sunday, we (#7 seed) played Helmet Heads (#4 seed). We won. On the following Saturday, we played Friday Night Lights (#1 seed). Another upset. Then came the championship game.

"Da da da da da da.... INCREDIBLES!"

The game began. It was intense, as beads of swet glided down our sideburns, and within the window of our eyes, the windows of our soul, wrote two words: "No Fear".

Wes whipped out his Air Jordan shoes... Yes the ref is Michael Chang the ex-tennis player...

David challenging their spikers...

Carol stepping up and getting some kill shots and blocks...

Jessica just good all around...

Phoebe holding her own...

And yours truly providing some offense and defense...

We won the first game, but got destroyed on the second game. At one point during the third game, we were down 4-12, watching the championship slowly slipping through our swetty fingers. Then I was up. Having served both of my serves nicely into the net during the championship thus far, the faith of the team in winning is held by a string as thin as a dental floss. As the crowd cheered on, "Serve it in!" "Come on!" "You can do it.", I looked at the score. 7-14. I felt a calmness, a soothing confidence that we could do this as I took a deep breath and flung the ball into the air. Imagine the entire scene in slow motion as my hand makes contact with the ball, the ball ascends into the air, all eyes fixated widely on the ball with open mouths, and the ball flying... flying... and lands in the court! The mojo was back. We won the point. Then I served, and I served, and I served, and I served, and they took a timeout, and I served, and I served, and I served, then the score was 15-14 when we conceeded a point. The momentum was on our side, and there was no stopping the Incredibles!

In the end, we won.

So it sounds like I turned the team around, but hey, this is my blog, right? Well, we won as a team. Some points that seemed unfathomably hard to return were answered, and everything just clicked. Everyone really stepped up.

Here's the team picture for the Incredibles. During the cerebration ceremony, Carol and Grace won the Most Inspirational Player awards for Incredibles and Superheroes, respectively.

And finally, as the first ECC team to win a championship in CSL volleyball, we were ready to accept our award! The award that symbolizes the incredulous turnaround! The award that reflects all the hard work and hours put into volleyball! The award that that bonds our team forever as champions of CSL! The award...

...was an edible cookie?!! Sure it says "C Champs", but come on... Well, I guess it's the journey and reaching our personal goals that's the best reward of all.

Still, a trophy would have been nice.

Cleveland 6, Seattle 1

Sat, 23 Apr 2005, 10:23:00 PST

Last night our fellowship attended the Mariners game. It started out with red carpet moment where Ichiro received his award for 262 hits. The national anthem was sung by a lady whose voice was solid except for that, oh, pathetic high note, which won't be wining any American Idol votes. Imagine me hitting a high note with some pubscent falsetto. Ok, don't imagine that. Anyway, on to the ballgame.

Gil Meche was pitching that night, and from the looks of it, he was pitching batting practice. From the top of the first inning, the Mariners were down 5-0. Sheesh. Learn how to pitch, boy! I was hoping the Mariners would claw their way back. First up, Ichiro!

And the balls comes to the plate! Ichiro is locked in! He looks at the ball! Swings! And...

...grounds out.

Ironically, after receiving the all-time hits award, Ichiro then goes on to get all of 0 hits that night. That's right, zip, zilch, goose egg. Well, that pretty much epitomizes the night for the Mariners, as we see Brett Boone strike out (no surprise here):

And Beltre still in his HR slump mapping back to the beginning of Spring Training:

During the ballgame, some of the cleaning crew started messing around:

They thought their lazy butts would slip by unnoticed, but my hawk eye spotted them from a mile away and caught them on film! Slackers! Get back to work!

Then there was the wave. You can deduce how the game is going when people are paying more attention to the wave than the game:

But the take away from the game is... The Ichiro Bobblehead dolls!

Okay, so at least there was something positive from the game. E-bay, here I come!

Turn Off That Computer, And Stay Away From My Cell!

Fri, 22 Apr 2005, 13:49:47 PST

How many hours a day do you spend online? Actually, let me rephrase that question. Do you spend enough time with family? A Newsweek poll revealed that 73 percent of teens wants to spend more time with their parents, and families who watch little television find more time spending with one another in engaging and interactive activities*. Cranium, anyone? (as long as it's not the Canadian version).

Apparently treating Internet Addiction Disorder is not as easy as it seems. Check out this quote from a Forbes article written in the future (5/9/05):

Turning off the monitor won't do the trick, say doctors like David Greenfield, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Greenfield worries that junkies are finding new ways to score a fix from their cell phones and Treos.

Before you descend to the state where you need to tap on the microwave digits to numb the pain, start turning off that computer periodically and spend that time with your family!

*"Teenagers want more...family time?" Christian Science Monitor 5/2/00

Bren plays it safe, and he's out!

Fri, 22 Apr 2005, 00:43:00 PST

The board room in this week's Apprentice was silly. Imagine the boxing match Tyson vs. Peewee and you'll get an idea what the board room was like. One punch knockout. Come on, Bren, don't pull a Samson and confess your hair as your weakness! "Gee, I can't take risks and I like to dig my own grave." I can only conclude that Bren seriously suffered from sleep deprivation and pulled a Verna, who simply gave up during week 2.

I think it's pretty obvious who will win the Apprentice by now. Kendra isn't a team player. Craig can't communicate. Alex is just flat. That leaves us with Tana, who is mild tempered yet brings a whole lot of smartness to the table. Tana will become the next apprentice by a mile, unless Trump tries to hire someone else just for the irony. If so, it puts the public view of Trump's judgment in jeopardy. Besides, it's about time for a female apprentice.

Remember Andy, the kid from Harvard in season two? One of my coworkers actually roomed with Andy, and he said that the kid is smart but pretty lazy. Well, a few weeks ago, he got his break when Trump decided to hire him. He now reports directly for Trump and is doing real work, which is more than we can say about Bill Rancic. Word has it that his job is a sham.

Type A Personality?

Thu, 21 Apr 2005, 16:46:45 PST

So I snooped around xanga and dusted the dust off an old entry on Carol's blog. It was titled "Do You Have A Type A Personality?". I answered the questions, and ... (drum roll)...

You Have A Type A Personality

A You are hyper, energetic, and always on the mood You tend to succeed at everything you attempt And if you don't succeed at first, you quickly climb your way to the top! You could be called a workaholic, but you also make time for fun As long as it's high energy and competitive, you're interested You have the perfect personality for business and atheltic success

Do You Have a Type A Personality?

I question the accuracy of this test, however, seeing that they can't even spell "athletic" correctly.

Anwar Falls Short, Vonzell Comes A Long Way!

Thu, 21 Apr 2005, 01:29:00 PST

In the latest round of American Idol elimination, Anwar bites the dust. The event was quite emotional, as my significant other shed a tear to his departure from the show, then proceeds to chew me out for causing this "fiasco". Apparently I didn't cast enough votes for her "Anwar" Tuesday night--that I only casted, oh, 250 votes for Anwar (that's 6 seconds per vote lasting about 25 minutes), not counting the dual-hand cell phone dialing action prior to that. Then she vows never to watch American Idol again. Oh that'll be the day!

Moving forward, I urge all of you to vote for Vonzell. Sure, I used to be a Carrie supporter, but lately her performances have been quite insipid, especially all her moves--all one of them, the wiggling of her heinies.

There are four must-have qualities for the next American Idol: Star Appearance, Vocal Quality, Stage Presence, and Audience Appeal. Scott and Anthony are eliminated for vocal quality, and Bo Bice for appeal. That leaves us with Vonzelle, Carrie, and Constantine. All the screen time for Constantine has catapulted him beyond what he deserves, as all the crazed voters, who can't distinguish between on-key and off-pitch, call for Constantine just because of the sentimental influence of the garage scene. That leaves Carrie and Vonzelle. Carrie has that Star appearance and definitely the vocal fidelity, but possessing just one and only one move just kills me. On the other hand, Vonzelle's got it all. Her vocal range exceeds Whitney Huston, her appearance is... acceptable, but her choreography is impeccable! Have you witnessed the hundreds of moves she busts out on the stage? She's a natural performer, and she has definitely grown on me throughout this competition.

Vonzell for the next American Idol!

Napster to the Dumpster

Thu, 21 Apr 2005, 00:17:34 PST

As a worship leader, I constantly scout new songs to introduce to the congregation, but to introduce a song, I need memorize the song forwards, backwards and upside down. What about songs absent from my pitiful CD collection? I came across Napster, which offers $9.99 unlimited streaming for free. Sounds good, right?

Wrong.

Literally, it doesn't sound good. The music volume seems to oscillate sporadically, drawing you in the music one minute and dropping you cold the next. The quality is far inferior to CD, lacking in the deepness and precision of the bass, but no surprises here considering the compression that needs to take place. In addition, some of the songs I wanted to listen to contained a "buy only" button, requiring a purchase to get beyond the pathetic 30 second clip that leaves you hanging. Worst of all, at the end of the year, you would have paid all this money and end up owning nada. The minute you stop subscribing, you have zilch.

The bottomline is, for $120 a year, you're better off treating yourself to real CDs. Not only do they sound better, but you can feel that you really own the songs.

Fantasy Baseball 101

Thu, 21 Apr 2005, 00:11:59 PST

There's a fad today on Fantasy sports. Everywhere you look it's Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Foosball, Fantasy Earthworm Hunt, etc. A few weeks ago, my friend Tim extended an invitation to join their league, and like a vegetarian lion eyeing a piece of fresh meat, I decided to give in. If you are a Fantasy virgin, let's take your through my first experience.

First, there's the draft, where all the managers simultaneously meet online and grind through a couple hours of player selection. Being ninth in the drafting lineup, naturally I missed out on getting Pujols or A-Rod. You have 90 seconds make your wise selection, and one time my time expired so I ended up with Yahoo's pick of Carl Crawford. I was pulling my hair out for a while there, but he turned out to be a good pick.

Next, you need to manage your players, and this is not for the light-hearted because you need to manage everyday. Mistakingly I postponed viewing the result until the end of the first day, and to my dismay, two of my starters, Schilling and Escobar, went on the disabled list before the season started. On the bench was Jamie Moyer, who got a win for Seattle that I couldn't cash in on. Mistakes learned.

As I began descending in the ranks, the low point being second to last place, I've learned that you need to examine your lineup daily. People can go on the DL or be benched, and when they don't play, you don't make. I've also learned that baseball players are very streaky, so when it rains, it pours. Some of my players have sub-.200 average even though they were top-ranked last year. I added the player Edgardo Alfonzo from the free agents list and he was quite a pickup. He added a big boost to my offensive arsenal.

I've learned that you need to look at the opponents and get an assessment of whether you want them to play to maximize your chances. If they're playing against Roger Clemens, they're probably not going to score 6 HR's.

Then there's paying tithe to the service provider. The league I play in is hosted on Yahoo, and without StatTracker, it's like driving blindfolded. I give props to Yahoo for this devious strategy of offering the stats to you free for a few weeks, then taking it away. Once you have a taste of quality steak, there's no going back. I justified this by convincing myself that I'll be tracking this everyday for the next 6 months, and what's $9.99 compared to the time I've saved?

So now I've moved my team from the gutter (second to last place) to the 3rd place out of 11 teams. I've been doing well lately, but who knows... I saw Big Stix Alpha, my bro-in-law, descend from glory (#2) to gutter (#10) within a week, which I suppose is similar to real baseball. The manager can only do their best putting the lineup together, and then it's up to the players to get the job done.

Mutant Nail Clipper

Wed, 20 Apr 2005, 23:55:11 PST

Today while I shopped at a classy store for the budget-minded, a store named Target, I came across an interesting artifact that resides in every household: the nail clipper. There are two types of nail clippers in this world, the ones built with a guard that keeps all the nail fragments nicely deflected within the casing, and the ones without, allowing fragments of your nail to traject into bowls of cereal, in between fibers you walk on known as the carpet, and into cracks where the missing quarters and socks resides. While 98% of the owners of this technology use the latter, I noticed a particular package hanging on the shelf of Target not only built with a guard, but taking it one step further--it was enhanced with soft, ergonomic grip for those of you who have butter fingers.

Being a technologically saavy dude who gravitates toward the cutting edge, literally speaking, I felt obligated to offer a contribution to the company that cleverly pushed the envelope of nail-trimming technology. So I ecstatically took it home, unpackaged it, only to find...

A design flaw.

I suspect they invented this item at some obscure lab in Area 51, because apparently they decided that human evolution* has reached the next stage and that the toe nail has mutated into reverse curvature. In the image above, one can see that while the clipper for the finger nail (left) has an inward curve, the toe nail clipper (right) is complete opposite. Unfortunately this presents an unnecessary challenge for those of us posession toe nails of normal curvature. There is already a casualty from this offensive design. A dear acquintance of mine, who shall remain anonymous, has unfortunately utilized this tool and involuntarily reshaped her toe nail into an unpresentable, hideous form. The only mitigating factor is that toe nail "will be back". It was like trying to shape a graham cracker perfectly round by taking bites out of it.

Clearly I will be rescinding my contribution to this company tomorrow, but I have just two words to anyone with enough insanity to consider adding this deceptive nail accessory to their bathroom collection: Stay away.

*disclaimer: The author of this article does not believe or condone the theory of evolution. Any references to such term is strictly for illustrative purposes only.